On May 15, 2022, I was fresh off my junior year of college and ready for an adventure. While some students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences started a summer internship, I was touching down just over 4,000 miles away from Ames. I had the chance to participate in the United Kingdom Heritage Livestock study abroad program, and it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
CALS 草榴社区 has several unique opportunities. There are multiple programs that have been created within the college that cater to a variety of interests. Students apply to be part of a program, and once accepted, they attend class throughout the semester. During or right after the semester, they travel to their destination and immerse themselves in a special learning experience for two to three weeks.
One such course focuses on purebred livestock breeds originating in the U.K. I grew up raising and showing purebred cattle, so this was the perfect experience for me. There were 23 other students that were accepted into this program, and we spent the semester studying the history of the U.K., learning about what we could expect on the trip, and getting to know each other. By May, we were ready to venture across the Atlantic.
Although the trip was based on livestock production practices, we experienced some urban parts of the U.K. as well. Our trip started in Cambridge, where we toured the world-renowned King's College and had dinner at The Eagle, which is a pub that was made famous when Watson and Crick announced their discovery of the double helix form of DNA there.
Next, we moved on to London, and much of our time there was spent walking around the city and experiencing historical sites such as the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and Borough Market. We also visited Edinburgh at the end of our trip. There, we toured Edinburgh Castle, saw the Scottish crown jewels, and had free time to explore the Royal Mile. Our group enjoyed all three cities, and we marked some major items off our bucket lists: however, the real highlight of the trip was the farms and countryside we experienced.
After leaving London, we traveled to the village of Lambourn. This area is famous for training some of Europe's best racehorses. As we walked around the village, we encountered more horses on the roads than we did cars, and most of them were on their way to their morning workout. We toured Harry Dunlop's racing stables and watched part of a workout on the gallops. We also met with their veterinarian, who discussed keeping the horses in peak condition for racing.
From there, we visited Adam Henson's Cotswold Farm Park. The farm park was a prime example of agritourism in the U.K. and home to some of the rarest breeds of livestock. Our final stop in England was at Haven Herefords in Herefordshire. They are the oldest continuous herd of registered Herefords in the world, with this year being their 200th in operation.
At Haven Herefords, we met Edward and Ben, a father-son duo who talked about the history of the operation and the genetics they use. Then, we walked through the pens of calves for their upcoming sale and saw a few of their herd bulls. They also grow apples and hops for cider and beer, and we learned about those industries as well.
From Herefordshire, we continued to Wales. I was unsure what to expect from this portion of the trip, but the fantastic scenery ended up making it one of my favorites. We started at an operation that raises Welsh Black cattle and crossbred sheep and runs a bottled beverage business. Diversification was very common in the U.K., and it is essential for the survival of many farms.
The other stop in Wales was a farm on property that belonged to Snowdonia National Park. The tenant farmer there primarily raises sheep and a few Welsh Black cattle. He gave us an impressive sheepdog herding demonstration as well. Since his farm is part of a national park, many hikers passed us on their way to a trail.
In the U.K., the majority of the land is owned by the government or aristocratic families. Because few people own land, they have what is called 'The Right to Roam." This essentially means that there are no private property laws, which is why we saw people hiking through pastures multiple times. This was surprising to our group and led to many discussions about how the law impacts the way livestock are handled and managed.
After touring Wales, we journeyed north into Scotland. Here, we visited farming operations that were similar to the ones in the United States. In fact, one Scottish farmer we met raises purebred Angus and uses genetics from Nichols Farms, which is located in Iowa.
Other farms we visited included a feedlot operation called Gaindykehead Farm and Grace Noble's Aberdeenshire Highland Beef. Here, we enjoyed meeting some traditional Scottish Highlander cattle and learned about the livestock show industry in the U.K. Other highlights of Scotland included visiting Loch Ness to search for Nessie, trying traditional scotch at a whiskey distillery, watching a few live cattle auctions, and seeing the oldest registered Angus herd at Ballindalloch Castle.
One main theme that stood out to me from the trip is that there is a major push for sustainability in the U.K. Almost every farmer we met talked about what they were doing to preserve the land they worked on, and many received government subsidies to do so. Farmers in the U.K. were also struggling with high feed and fertilizer prices, just like we were in the U.S. all the time.
After meeting so many farmers, we all agreed that regardless of where we come from, agriculturalists can sit down at the dinner table and discuss the same things. We face many of the same struggles and have similar goals and passions. Looking back on this trip, I have a much larger worldview than before we left and learned a lot about policy, trade, and how agriculture looks in another country. I often hear that the people involved in agriculture are what makes the industry so special, and it was clear that this holds true 4,000 miles from the Midwest.
Original story posted by CALS Connections: Vol. 9 issue 1. CALS Connections. (Fall, 2022).