Well before March 3, Gail Carpenter knew her spring break was going to be no vacation.
Carpenter, an animal science freshman, is one of the 50 or so students who work on MSU's University Farms. And since the animals aren't going anywhere, she was one of the many students who gave up a spring break to earn some extra money and keep working at what might become a future career.
Despite a primary interest in dairy production, Carpenter spent most of her break lending a hand at the MSU Swine Teaching & Research Center off College Road on south campus.
"Sure, I'd like to be in Texas or Florida or some place where there is no snow," Carpenter said. "But it's money, and I need that for college."
At least she's not alone. Most of the farm's student staff passed up any spring break revelry in order to devote more time to their charges, in this case, the more than 200 sows at the facility. The students spent their week weaning and vaccinating piglets, cleaning stalls and stacking feed, among other duties.
For animal science seniors Ben Vainner and Caleb Schaeffer, there wasn't much of a choice. They are the farm's two "go-to-guys" the benefits of which include free, nearby housing, Schaeffer said. The drawbacks, however, are being on-call 24 hours a day in case of an emergency.
"In all honesty, I think if I tried to go to Cancun, or some place like that, I would just get myself in trouble," Vainner said. "Besides, I enjoy coming to work every day; the people I work with are good people."
Even though Vainner does not see himself working at a large-scale swine production facility in the future, he said his two years of experience at the farm will come in handy when he tries to land a job with the National Pork Producers Council, a lobbyist organization in Washington, D.C., or the National Pork Board, an advocacy group that promotes pork consumption with the public.
"It's way too expensive to get started right out of college," Vainner said of starting his own large farm. "And the hog market is not as strong as it used to be — not like it was 20 years ago."
Vainner said he would like to raise about 25-30 show sows at home, though.
"Growing up, my brothers and sisters have been showing pigs as long as I can remember," he said.
Being raised around animals unites many of the students who end up as farm hands for the university.
In fact, Schaeffer only came to MSU to get a degree so he could work after graduation at a 7,000-head swine production facility in Carson City, near his hometown of Riverdale.
"I grew up on a farm," Schaeffer said. "I was in (Future Farmers of America), 4-H, all that kind of stuff."
He said giving up spring break was nothing new to him — he had been working every spring break since he was young.
"It was too far to walk into town," Schaeffer said, laughing.
Vainner agreed, saying "you can't miss what you don't know."
