From Iowa to Kenya: The Chores are Still the Same
These past two weeks I have been working down at the research farm that is located on the ILRI campus. All of the research that requires actual animals is done down at the farm. Strangely enough, besides there being more biosecurity practices, it’s not that different from any regular farm back in Iowa. I don’t want to say that I necessarily live on a farm, its more of a acreage, however we are self declared hobby farmers. We have cattle and chickens and at on point in my life there was even a couple of goats, however they started eating my mother’s flowers and had to go. Having livestock at home means having to take care of them and feed them. Spoiler alert! The same thing is true here in Kenya, I know, shocking isn’t it? It was actually really strange, I came all the way to Kenya to do what I do every day at home.
These past two weeks have given me a better understanding of the what it really takes to run a research facility that focuses on livestock. There are several different labs and facilities down at the farm, there’s even an entire building that is dedicated to ticks and the diseases that they can cause. (I’m definitely not a big fan of that building.) All of the research that happens down at the farm wouldn’t be possible without the work of the staff. It didn’t really occur to me until I was down there already, that the researchers are just doing research on the animals. They’re not the ones feeding them and taking care of them. That means that someone has to take care of the animals and make sure their pens are clean. I was one of these people. I arrived at the farm around eight o’clock every morning and got done at around four every evening. Since the farm is a research facility, I had to shower in and out every day and also wear shoes and clothing that was provided for me. This is to help prevent any potential disease outbreaks from happening.
Tuesdays are definitely one of my favorite days down at the farm. Every Tuesday all of the cattle, that are not being used for research, have to go through a sprayer that spray a mix of water and tick repellent on them. I refer to it as the cow wash. It’s pretty interesting to watch the process.
Another day I got to help milk a couple of the dairy cows that they have. They only milk them once a day, because they also have their babies on the side. They do about seven cows every day and it is all by hand. I milked an entire cow by myself and I have to admit it was a lot more work than I initially thought it would be. By the end my hands were cramping up and it was rather uncomfortable sitting on such a short stool. This experience was actually very personal to me. My great-grandfather owned dairy cattle way back when and my grandmother was raised on this farm. Growing up I had heard several stories from her about the dairy cattle and so when I got to milk a cow it was a really cool moment where I was able to connect with my family’s history a little bit, even though I had to come all the way to Kenya to do so!
Another thing that I found interesting about the research farm, compared to most farms in Iowa, was how spotless it was. From my personal experience farms in Iowa are by no means dirty, but the farm here takes cleanliness to a whole new level. All of the pens are completely cleaned out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This is mostly because the farm is used for research purposes, but it was still very impressive to see how much work goes into maintaining the facilities. These last two weeks have really shown me how agriculture in Kenya is very similar and very different from agriculture in Iowa.
