On Friday, October 13, juniors in the Personal and Professional Skills class took their third field trip of the year.

Students left the building at 8:35 to go to Kinnard Farm in Casco, a family-owned local farm.

The students were able to learn about the facilities and go on a tour of the farm led by the feed manager Mr. Mark Schlaefer, a graduate of Premontre.

“Our farm is all about making the cows as happy as possible,” said Schlaefer. “A happy cow is a profitable cow.” 

This is demonstrated by the treatment of the cows, who have feed and water available to them 23 hours a day and are never tied up.

Schlaefer also talked about the family-oriented nature of the farm and added that the owner, Lee Kinnard, is down at the farm almost every day. 

The Kinnard cows have an interesting life cycle. Three to seven days after they are birthed, they go to Colorado, where they are raised. They then return to Wisconsin 60 days before the birth of their first calf, which is when they are able to start milking. 

Another employee, herd manager Carissa Kepler, said that she wished she had a program like PPS in high school.

She shared that though she liked learning in high school, she always preferred hands-on activities, leading her to become a veterinary technician in Madison.

After performing a surgery on a Kinnard cow, she made connection with the farm and later decided to work there full-time. 

“It’s really valuable doing apprenticeships and job shadowing,” she shared, telling students to take advantage of every opportunity they have, as “you never know what you will end up liking.”