Leo Harrison

I choose Ridgewater because they had a very good dairy program. I am also from Washington State and there was no out-of-state tuition. Ridgewater helped me with all the things I needed to know to milk cows. I graduated April 2009 and started my own dairy farm in August of 2009 at 20 years old. I milked cows for almost 8 years. I currently deliver sawdust to dairy farms horse farms blueberry farms raspberry farms and raise 70 head of beef cows and 30 jersey heifers.

Your Program
I decided I wanted to become a dairy farmer when I was in third grade. Ridgewater had a very good dairy program!

Relationships with Faculty & Staff
I met Brant Groen when he came out to Washington. He took us Washington students in and treated us like family.

Memorable Experiences
I competed in PAS and we got to travel to Pennsylvania and Texas that was cool seeing other states. I also played intramural basketball and we won the championship my second year

Learning
I would say learning to artificially inseminate cows. I bred all my cows when I dairy farmed. I actually had a cow out of my herd go to the world dairy expo.

Advice
Enjoy your time there – it goes by quickly.

Additional Comments
The Dairy Management Program used to go on field trips every Friday. It was very helpful to see in person different ways people did things.