Education: Graduated with Elementary Education degree from George Fox University
Previous Work: Worked as a nanny in Spain and England for 9 months
Favorite Animal: Hypatia, the dairy cow
We have had a great time getting to know 26 year-old, short-term intern Rose Poe this autumn.
When Rose returned last year from her time in Europe, she was a bit unclear in her next plans. Her undergrad degree was pointing towards teaching, but she wasn’t feeling the call. She also didn’t have any other clear idea until a friend asked her to say out loud what she would do if there were no limits.
“I thought for a bit and said I would go back to my family’s ranch and make something work there,” she told me. “So then my friend asked, What’s stopping you?”
The desire has been there for a long time, she said, to work outdoors with animals. She used to want to be a veterinarian, for instance. But despite her grandmother’s large piece of land, the agriculture profession had not continued in her family. She would need to figure it out on her own.
“My friend suggested that I pray about it and see what I found, so I did,” she said. “Working with animals is something I've always been passionate about, and there’s a lot of education opportunities within agriculture, so that fits. Then I went down the regenerative path and I got so into it. I hadn’t heard of it before and it blew me away. This is the answer to our food system, our climate issues and getting kids healthy again!”
So, once she got a more clear idea about what she needed to learn, Rose began searching for farm internships.
“I looked all around the country and would have learned a lot in other states but Oregon is very specific in what it requires,” she said. “The Willamette Valley area is very dry in the summer and so that’s one thing to overcome but then it's extremely, extremely wet in the winter. In other areas the winter freezes the soil, but in Oregon we are battling the wetness rather than the snow and the cold.”
So I asked her, after working at Deck Family Farm for 3 months, do you feel ready to become a farmer?
Rose laughed! “I’m still learning a lot of stuff, obviously, but I've seen how Deck rotationally grazes and how to get water to the animals wherever they are. Mostly I’ve learned an approach that requires a lot of nuance. You can’t be sure that in the winter we’ll do this and this and follow these rules and in the summer we’ll do these other rules. I’ve learned the things I need to consider in each season and I’m very grateful I’m still going to be partnering with Deck at this point.”
Going forward, Rose will work as a grazer helping monitor and manage Deck’s off-site herds on her property and on another property near her grandmother’s ranch. She’ll come to Junction City once a week to work with the dairy herd and to consult with the farm on how the off-site herds are doing.
She has great hope for the future and she is grateful for the opportunity her grandmother is providing. “My Grandma is my partner for now. She’s remaining the owner and I can attempt to run a business from there,” she said. “I always loved animals and it's very exciting for me to work with animals as my job. It might be really, really hard but if it works it would give me real purpose in my life!”