Gary Conklin Opens Up

            Last quarter, I was in Comm 421, a writing and editing for news media course. I wrote this article as my final paper. Enjoy.

Gary Conklin, owner of Conklin Dairy Farms, Inc., was “horrified” by the footage of abuse uncovered on his farm in early 2010.

Cute Calves and Heifer Hugs

This is the cutest group of calves I’ve ever seen.

Seriously.

Home for the first time in a few months, I was doing my normal chores in the upper calf barn. All the calves in stalls had been born during my absence, and so it was my first time seeing them.

Things On My Wall: Why I Love Dairy Farming

So as I’m sitting here, supposed to be studying for my Biology final and thinking that it’s probably more important to blog since I didn’t last week, I’m looking around my desk for inspiration.

Not Messages, Conversations

Last week, I traveled to Lubbock, Texas for the 2012 National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow Professional Development Conference. (That's why we hashtagged it as #2012ACTPDC - even that's a mouthful.)

Modern Agriculture

So I recently took a taxi for the first time.

(That part has very little to do with the actual story.)

As I got in the car and told the driver where I needed to go, he idly asked what I was doing there – it’s not a common place to be dropped off, being 6 miles outside of Columbus. I told him that I was covering a speech for my communication class. He asked what my major was, and I told him I was an agricultural communication student.

I Had It...

And then I lost it. Just like that…no rhyme or reason. One minute, I was happily reciting my speech – the best I’d ever given – to the three judges sitting in front of me, and the next I was completely lost. My mom would later reason that my lunch was to blame for this sudden bout of unexplainable forgetfulness…but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s back it up to where this whole ordeal began…

Spring-Run Farms: A Photo Journey

For today’s post, I wanted to give you a photo tour of the farm. These pictures were taken by a professional photographer by the name of Shaun Cloud, who photographed our farm after we received the 2011 Dairy Farmers of America Distinguished Member award. This award is given to 6 farms each year, and for our small family farm, it was a huge honor.