Pregnancy Checks, Patience, and Purpose
#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk
My final week of the Internship was a very nice end to my time here and it was one of the most formative experiences of my life. The highlight of the week was spending two days shadowing the veterinarian, something I had been looking forward to since it was first mentioned. While becoming a vet is not a path I see myself on, I was genuinely curious about what the day-to-day work looks like behind the scenes. Those two days were spent ultra sounding and pregnancy checking cows across a couple of different ranches, and I served as the data recorder throughout, logging results as the vet worked. More than the recordkeeping though, I loved that they took the time to show me what they were seeing on the screen and explain how to read it. Ultrasound imaging is not easy to interpret at first. Identifying a calf in there took some practice and it was fun but watching the vet pinpoint not only whether a cow was pregnant but also the gender of the calf and an estimated age in days was genuinely impressive. It is the kind of skill that looks effortless when someone has been doing it for years, and seeing it up close gave me a deep respect for the expertise that goes into veterinary work.
Getting to visit different ranches over those two days was great. Every operation we pulled into had its own rhythm, its own setup, its own way of doing things. Even after ten weeks of seeing how one ranch runs, stepping onto someone else’s property and watching how they manage the same tasks was a good reminder of how much variety exists within this industry. The only real hiccup across the two days was a hydraulic line on one of the chutes that broke mid-use. We swapped it out and got back to work without much lost time, but it was another small reminder that something unexpected is always just around the corner on a ranch. What stood out to me more than the equipment issue was how the vet and the ranch hands handled it. Everyone was calm and just focused on solving the problem and moving on. That quality of patience under pressure is something I have been trying to build in myself all summer, and seeing it modeled so consistently by experienced people reinforced why it matters. I noticed a real difference in myself this week compared to where I started. I was calmer, less reactive, and more focused on doing what needed to be done rather than getting worked up when things did not go perfectly. Working with animals will test your patience every single day, and the people who do this well have learned to let the frustration go and keep their head in the work.
The rest of the week was my typical morning chores, maintenance, and whatever needed doing. The hay we brought in last week needed to be stacked, and this time we had extra helpers which was super nice instead of doing it with just 3 people.I also finished rolling up the old barbed wire at the homestead, a project I had started in one of my very first weeks here. Walking off that field with the job finally complete felt like a quiet but meaningful full-circle moment. I did not think much about it when I started it back then, but finishing it in my last week felt like a fitting way to close out the summer.
One of the more unexpected and touching moments of the week came when we met the young woman who will be moving in after I leave. She is heading to college in Gillette and will be helping with chores on her days off from school. I spent some time showing her around the ranch, walking her through the morning routine, introducing her to the animals, and sharing whatever I could to help her feel ready.
Looking back on the past ten weeks, I am genuinely at a loss for the right words to capture what this experience has meant to me. I came into this program without a clear picture of what I would get out of it, and I am leaving with far more than I could have anticipated. The skills I picked up driving tractors and loaders, checking fences, moving livestock, pulling a well, reading an ultrasound screen over a vet’s shoulder are things I am grateful for. But the lessons I learned is the importance of patience, the value of showing up even when a task feels tedious or thankless, the understanding that caring for animals means putting their needs ahead of your own comfort or schedule, and the reminder that the agriculture community is made up of some of the most hardworking, generous, and welcoming people I have ever met. Everyone I encountered this summer seemed genuinely happy to meet me, to share what they knew, and to invest in my growth. This ranch became a second home, and the people here became something close to family. I am leaving with a full heart, a deep gratitude for the opportunity, and a renewed sense of purpose about where I want to go and what I want to do with what I have learned.
Submitted by: Kaci Jericoff
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
