Dairy management sophomore Terry Grieser has been helping on his family’s farm since he was able to walk to the barn.
His father is a first-generation farmer and Grieser hopes to bring the knowledge he gains at MSU back to the family dairy farm in Lakeview, Michigan. Grieser is a dairy management student in the Institute of Agricultural Technology, a two-year certificate program. IAT is a program that the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources administers and has about 250 students in nine different programs on campus.
Grieser has worked as an intern at the MSU Dairy Teaching and Research Center since the middle of his first semester at MSU. He moved into the apartment at the teaching and research center before the second semester of his freshman year.
“Being that I live on the farm, I have to cover any shifts that don’t end up getting covered,” Grieser said. “If something breaks at night or if there’s a calf being born in the middle of the night, they call me and I take care of the problems.”
Cows at the teaching and research center are milked each day at 2:30 a.m. until 7 a.m. and again at 1 p.m. until 6 p.m. About 12,000 pounds of milk is taken from the center every day to a milk processing plant in Ovid, Michigan.
Grieser cleans cow pens, fixes things around the farm and chops hay and straw for the cows to eat, among other tasks.
He said his favorite cow at the farm is named Primrose because she’s the friendliest cow. Grieser said the best part about working at the farm is his coworkers and that they always have a good time together.
“Ever since I was a little kid I wanted to go to Michigan State for the dairy program, and now here I am, part of the way through it, doing well,” Grieser said.