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Karen was among a handful of Young Farmers who supply to Dairy Farmers selected to travel on a three-month farm exchange, where she stayed with three different families in three different parts of America; Ohio, New York State and Wisconsin.
While on exchange, Karen worked on the farms, as if she was a local. During this experience, she discovered some very different techniques to those used on her family’s Aberdeen farm where they graze 600 cattle across two 500 acre properties.
“Because of the cold climate, they keep their cows indoors and handfeed them which is so much more labour-intensive than back home where our cows will graze in paddocks,” she said.
“They often split the work between different managers on a joint-venture arrangement to balance the workload.
“It wasn’t uncommon to see separate managers for payroll, feed and milking, whereas, my dad will do all of that.
“There are a lot more very large farms compared to Australia. I visited farms that had up to 2,000 head of cattle.”
While away, Karen had the chance to meet other like-minded young people who shared her interest in show cattle.
“I also visited the company Select Sires, which has played a significant role in the genetics of Australian cattle via its stud bull semen exports,” Karen said.
“The whole trip has invigorated my interest in dairy farming.”
Despite her post-trip enthusiasm, Karen said she was very nervous before setting out on her journey.
“It was a really big thing for me to do something like this,” Karen said.
“If it wasn’t for the Dairy Farmers Exchange program, I don’t think I would have ever just gone overseas by myself, but once I was booked, there was no turning back.
“It was pretty scary because I had to take on a lot more responsibility for myself than I would back home, so I am really proud of myself.”
Even though she felt trepidation, Karen said she had always felt drawn to America.
“I don’t know why, but I’ve always wanted to go to there – I like the accent,” she said.
“I’m glad I did it this way, because now I know people so I will always have a place to stay and good friends to catch up with when I return.”
Good friends indeed, Karen’s Wisconsin host parents travelled to Australia to help celebrate her 21st birthday on November 27 this year.
“They’re like my adopted family,” Karen said.
“It was really special that they flew over for my 21st – we had a great time.”
