Pennsylvania Farm Show Extravaganza!

Well y'all it's been a couple days since my adventure to Pennsylvania, but I have been taking the past week to recharge and actually have a break!  It seems like since I got out of school in December it's been a whirlwind of activity!

After my flying fiasco to and from Ohio, I was less than excited to board yet another plane to Harrisburg.  Amazingly, I was able to get there before Katie or Demi with only minor delays and no hassle at security!  Upon arrival, Katie and I met up and were assigned a dorky Nissan Sentra for a rental car - what a good time we had laughing at our little car!  Poor Demi must have acquired my luck for flying and had routine delays throughout the day and wasn't scheduled to arrive into Harrisburg until 11 that evening.  Thus, Katie and I headed out to find our hotel and a bite to eat.  Thanks to Google, we settled on a very authentic Italian "ristorante" for dinner.  Our dining experience was completed with a dracula looking waitress and a family yelling match breaking out in the kitchen! (LOL!)  After dinner, we ventured out to explore the night life.  We had a great time dancing and I'm pretty sure we gave the good people of Harrisburg a laugh at the cooky Texans dancing their butts off!

Demi arrived safely and we bedded down for the night and prepared for a long day ahead!  Saturday morning was opening day for the Pennsylvania Farm Show, the nation's largest indoor farm event!  We were to be stationed in the "Today's Ag Barn", where we would be talking with consumers about our cow calf pair and different feedstuffs used in cattle rations, including some non-traditional ones!  We had lots of interesting discussions throughout the day and befriended the barn hands who were helping us.  We convinced the two barn hands that, upon closing, we would help them take the cattle out to the tie outs (what a bad idea that was!).  However, before that, we attended a very informative session on veal, something which I have very little experience in.  I even got to taste some at lunch, and despite my worst fears and preconceived notions, it was actually pretty darn good!

Veal Training with Robert Supancik

So, back to helping the barn hands with the cattle.  First up was the cow calf pair, of which I willingly took the calf.  That was fairly uneventful, other than the subzero walk across the parking lots to the tie outs!  Next up were the dairy cattle.  Unfortunately for me, someone had put my cow's halter on backwards, with the lead on the left side instead of the usual right.  She was being a pain when I tried to put it on correctly, so I decided to leave it and figured it shouldn't be too much of a problem.  Boy, was I WRONG!!  She drug me, took me in circles and was an overall pain in my butt all the way!  30 long minutes later, we arrived at her stall, panting, and I gladly put her away.  (Come to find out the next day, these cows had never been on a halter.  Thanks guys!)

Dairy cows are not my favorite

Day two was much the same as the first day, save for one man telling us about his pet raccoons (weird).  We were interviewed by Dave Williams, and somewhere out there (I have yet to find it), we were on RFDTV, as well as American Farm Country Radio!  We were able to connect with some media interns and did an interview with them about their ideas on the beef industry. See that here!  We also had the privilege of meeting with the PA Secretary of Ag and the Governor!

Secretary of Ag, Mr. Greig seated left, Me, Demi, Katie,
Governor Mr. Corbett standing right

This was such a cool trip and I am very excited to share it with you!  And my return flight home was eventful as always (including one missed flight and another long day).  I hope that y'all will check out the Beef Ambassadors at http://beefambassador.com/ or on our Facebook to keep up with our adventures!

Until Next Time Y'all!

Alicia

Talking with the Secretary of Ag, Mr. Greig