Intro
This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to intern at Crane Dance Farms in Middleville, Michigan. I first met the owners, Jill and Mary, at a planned grazing seminar hosted by MSU at the Lake City Research Center in the spring. They invited me to visit their 50-acre regenerative farm, and what I saw there left a lasting impression.
Crane Dance Farms is a testament to sustainable farming, with a diverse array of enterprises that includes grass-fed, grass-finished beef and lamb, pasture-raised broilers, layers, and pigs. They even have bees! As Jill and Mary showed me around, I was struck by how they managed to do so much on just 50 acres. They also gave me a tour of their farmers market trailers, which they take to markets in Holland and Grand Rapids every Saturday. These trailers, outfitted with wood paneling, electricity, and chest freezers, store their nutrient-dense meats. I was floored by the ingenuity and efficiency of their operation.
Before I left that day, they showed me their giant walk-in freezer packed with hundreds of pounds of beef, lamb, pork, and poultry. It was like being a kid in a candy store! I was so impressed by what I saw that I knew I had to work for them.
However, there was a bit of a complication. I already had a job working for a mason named Jerry Rondeau, a position I had held for over four years. I was making good money, but Jerry could only work every other week during the summer due to custody arrangements for his kids. With that in mind, I asked him if he would be okay with me working at Crane Dance Farms during my off weeks. He didn’t mind, and after discussing it with my parents and praying about it, I felt confident it was the right move. So, I called Jill and Mary and arranged an interview. They agreed to let me work every other week, Monday through Sunday night. I was beyond excited—my dream of farming was about to come true!
However, the experience didn’t unfold quite as I had imagined. During my first week at the farm, I found myself feeling lonely and unsure of what to do with myself. Farming, which I had always romanticized, began to feel more like a job than a way of life. But I trusted that God had brought me to this place for a reason, and I leaned on that faith as I adjusted to my new routine.
Slowly, I started to find joy in the little things. My time away from home became a sort of retreat, a chance to slow down and breathe. I began to appreciate the rhythm of farm life, even if I didn’t always love the arrangement.
A Day in the Life
Every morning at 8 AM, I started my day with the first round of chores. This involved letting all the poultry out of their nighttime housing, moving and feeding them, and tending to the pigs. I let the layers out of their coop, moved the meat birds in their mobile coops, cleaned the pig waterers, and fed the pigs. I also checked on the cows and sheep to make sure they were all okay and to see if any cows had given birth.
One of my tasks was moving electric fences for the sheep, cows, and poultry. This was something I had no experience with, but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to set up and move the netted or wire electric fences. Don’t get me wrong—I got shocked a few times, including one particularly rough morning when I leaned over to work on a broken water line and got knocked unconscious by the perimeter fence. But overall, I found moving fences to be one of my favorite jobs on the farm. The animals loved being moved to fresh pasture, and I took pride in setting up the fences just the way Mary liked them—nice and straight.
This new skill has me excited about the possibility of keeping sheep or goats on my own farm one day. Sheep, in particular, seem like a great option for a small farmstead. They’re smaller and easier to manage than cows, and they’re excellent lawnmowers that also provide rich, nutritious meat.
Gaining Confidence
Living and working at Crane Dance Farms taught me so much about animals, electric fencing, and heavy equipment. But perhaps the greatest benefit I gained from this internship was a newfound confidence in myself as a farmer. Before this experience, I had little livestock experience beyond raising ducks. The idea of managing cows, sheep, or chickens felt daunting. But now, with hands-on experience under my belt, I feel a renewed sense of excitement about farming.
I’m so grateful for my time at Crane Dance Farms and for Jill and Mary, who generously shared their knowledge and passion for sustainable farming with me. I pray that their farm continues to thrive, and I’m looking forward to applying everything I’ve learned as I continue my own farming journey.
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