Henderson got a chance to work with cows when her animal behavior class had sessions at the Dairy Cattle Teaching and Research Center. It didn’t take long before she knew she wanted more time in the dairy industry.

“I kind of fell in love with dairy cows,” she said. “(Cows) are cute, you can milk them and they are functional. The fact that I can go and work hands on with animals is rather thrilling.”

These days, Henderson spends five hours a day at the center taking care of cows.

The building, located south of campus at College Road, is used for teaching and research. At its core, it’s a fully functional farm, supplying milk for other MSU services, such as the Dairy Store.

For Henderson, the routine is a five-hour job that gets her up close and personal with cows and involves a lot of pushing back and forth, feeding cows that seem to have an endless appetite, yelling at animals that don’t quite understand the English language and, of course, cleaning up the waste, which is not always pretty.

“I feel a sense of accomplishment,” she said. “Also, it beats going to the gym.”

And Henderson added one more benefit.

“If you raise your own milk, it tastes better.”