Yesterday was the last day of the Vermont Farm Show up at the Barre Civic Center. Extension and UMV are all over it and I was stationed in two booths, AgrAbility in the morning and Extensions in the afternoon. I was not too psyched about the day, it just rubs my nose in the fact that I don’t have my sheep anymore. And not having my sheep is a bit of a sore spot. But I sucked it up and figured that I would have fun just talking with new people and finding out their stories and catch up with some Extension folks that I like a lot but don’t get to see too much.
So kinda at the end of the day, when I was just being a bit of myself, I was yacking with Tony Kitos about what he does and thinking about a farm that could use his help, when this dude in a suit comes by and starts chatting with Tony. I introduce myself, as we are all standing right there and ask him if he s a farmer, which we all know he isn’t ‘cus of the suit. Plus he had really nice shoes, which told me that he was from away. Turns out he is Andre Denis Wright, chair of the Department of Animal Science at Groovy U-vy and is a pretty down to earth, normal kind of guy with a sense of humor.
Then he mentions that he has been in Aussie land for the past 12 years, via Nova Scotia, and he has been studying SHEEP. and and and better than that, Merinos. Yes Merinos and then he tells me that he wants to bring Meat Merinos to the Miller farm, now that the cows are gone. Well…. now we are talking! He talks a bit about working with a flock that had an 11 micron wool clip, he talks about developing vaccines to reduce methane production in sheep…. and wants to do the same at UVM. And I want in.
He said that he was gonna check out the blog, I gave him this address….. we will see what his follow though is like. This could be really exciting, imagine…..Merinos at UVM…..
