A little About Me

Hello, my name is Rachel Schroeder. I am a sophomore at NDSU, but am from a corn and soybean crop farm in southwest Minnesota.  Growing up I helped with many tasks like picking rocks, driving grain cart, soil sampling, leave tissue sampling, and just checking the crops and maintenance around the farm. I have one younger brother who would also help with the many responsibilities given to a farm kid.

I was extremely active in 4-H and FFA growing up and these organizations helped me gain a passion for animal agriculture. I mainly showed poultry and market goats in 4-H but also did some with beef and swine. Having different livestock species was always fun because it was always provided a new learning opportunity, but convincing my mom was always the problem.

One of my favorite memories is from when I was 5 years old. The neighbor had two calves that needed bottle feeding, so we took them and raised them until they could go to market. My mother was not thrilled about this idea, but she did discover it was way to get me out of bed early in the morning. She was not happy at all though with my eagerness to go bottle feed my calves in the morning. 5:30 would roll around and I would be standing by my parents bed ready to go out to do chores.

Now even though I loved having the cattle I could not convince my mom that I could have more to show for 4-H. As a little kid she decided chickens would be nice and small for me to handle. The Schroeder Farm has had poultry ever since I was 5, and I have exhibited them at different shows since I was a third grader. I enjoyed showing chickens, but eventually got my parents convinced to try market goats after one of my best friends had showed one at the county fair.

The first couple years my brother and I just purchased show wethers, which are castrated males. We bought them when they were about 2-3 months old and raised them to about 100 pounds or about 7 months. After that they are taken to market. Goat meat is growing in demand and tastes really good if cooked right. Goat meat (chevron) is also extremely healthy compared to other red meats.

Since I have experience in raising different poultry species and goats this blog is going to focus on some issues most people don’t understand or should be more informed on. I have had many questions asked of me when showing. I have gone to several different workshops to gain more knowledge and have helped with many programs in school to teach younger kids about agriculture.