Beyond the Barn: My Summer with the Dairy and Livestock Team

Introduction

My name is Evalyn Rizzuto, and I am a senior at the University of New Hampshire studying Animal Science. Coming into this internship, I have prior experience working on dairy farms as a volunteer at my community dairy farm, an employee at another local dairy farm, and a current student employee at the Fairchild Dairy farm on campus. I have also worked with dairy researchers at UNH as well. While I appreciate the knowledge these experiences have given me, I was interested in learning more about what service providers do in their daily lives to support the New Hampshire farming industry. In applying for the Dairy and Livestock internship program, I was hoping to gain that knowledge and experience.

My summer as an intern

When applying for this internship, I knew of Extension previously throughout my time at UNH, but I was still not entirely sure what they did each day. I have also been searching for possible career options and was interested in learning more about this potential career path. After the interview process, the Dairy and Livestock team decided to take me on as their intern for the summer. I soon realized I was the first intern through the dairy and livestock program, and we would be figuring a lot out together. I worked with the dairy, livestock, and field crop specialists this summer. This included Katrina Klobucher, the livestock field specialist, Carl Majewski, the field and forage crops field specialist, and Sarah Allen, the state dairy specialist. My first time officially meeting Sarah, my mentor, in person, she asked me what I was hoping to get out of the summer and told me that this internship was to help the team, but also to help me focus on my interests and gain any experience that I was looking for.

Although this internship was a short ten weeks, I managed to do so many things and learn so much. On my first official day, I traveled to different farms with a group of other farmers serving as judges for the New Hampshire Green Pastures Award, the state’s award for “Dairy Farm of the Year”. While everyone warned me that every day would not be that exciting, I found that to be partly untrue. Every week we went to at least one new place, usually more. From then on, I did a variety of things each week including crop scouting, calf vaccine cohort meetings, farm visits, mid-season corn evaluations, a body condition scoring workshop, sanitation audits, calf management evaluations, and I even got to experience an Appledore Island field trip! The days that I would spend on my computer consisted of writing articles for the Extension website, putting together a scoring sheet for the body condition workshop, taking notes on needs-assessment interviews, and working on materials for a value-added program, along with a few other things.

Overall, the dairy and livestock internship has been a valuable experience. I am so thankful for every opportunity I was able to take part in this summer, and I know in the coming years others will also benefit greatly!