Personal experience and production goals summary:
I first worked on a small farm in the summer of 2017 outside of Asheville. My duties were to feed and give water to the hens and chicks every morning, to move the chicks every morning, feed and milk the cow, bottle-feed the calf, muck the cow shelter, weed the vegetable rows and other duties as assigned by the farm manager (weed-whacking the blueberries, mowing, helping move the cows, helping fix the hoophouse, etc.).
The second farm I worked on was a research farm though CEFS (Center for Environmental Farming Systems). There I helped collect data samples, do some preliminary data analysis and do farm duties such as mowing the pastures, planting the corn and figuring out seeding rates, and helping move the cattle. I learned a little about driving a tractor during this job.
The last farm I worked on was a small vegetable farm with NCSU called the Agroecology Farm. I worked during the winter months, so I mostly helped start seedlings, prepare beds for planting, weeding, harvesting, dropping off deliveries to the dining hall and doing research on varieties and crop planning. I also volunteered to help harvest at this farm the summer before!
I am open to many different future farm ideas and so I am happy to work on all sorts of different farms - whether that is ethical, pasture-raised livestock, ecologically-produced vegetables, no-spray flowers or anything else! I am interested in learning how to take care of bees and no-till/low-till, organic production has captured my attention currently, but really I am open to learning anything and everything about sustainable farming.
