PHOTOGRAPHY

I got my first camera in high school.

It was a Canon T5i and I still use it when I’m working from my own kit. I’ve gotten the chance to work with various cameras and equipment through the years, but I’ve found that crafting a meaningful story has nothing to do with the fancy equipment you are working with and everything to do with your storytelling and journalistic skills. (But that doesn’t stop me from geeking out over cameras.)

Future of Farming series

As part of a student-led team, I conceptualized, pitched, reported and produced a three-part series about the future of farming. Our first installment looked into changing consumer preferences for dairy products and how this affects dairy farms experiencing a decrease in demand for milk. For this photo story, we focused on Brandt Dairy Farm in Linn, MO where Alfred Brandt and his son showed us the milking process and told us about how the drop in demand for milk has affected his farm.

Alfred Brandt watches as his cows eat on his farm in Linn, Mo., on Tuesday, February 25, 2020.
A cow waits to be milked at Brandt’s Dairy Farm in Linn, Mo., on Tuesday, February 25, 2020. It takes two and a half hours to milk the entire herd. Afred Brandt, the owner of the farm, said free-range dairy farms would not work in Missouri because of the wet weather here. “I mean, it’s just almost impossible to keep cows healthy when they’re out in the mud,” Brandt said, “and their energy needs get so much higher if they’ve got to walk through that.”
Cows fall into line to be milked at Brandt Dairy Farm in Linn, Mo., on Tuesday, February 25, 2020. The cows are artificially inseminated so that they have a calf every 13 to 14 months and continue to produce milk. Because of this the cows need to be milked twice a day.
Jake Hare attaches automatic pumps to the cows so they can be milked at Brandt Dairy Farm in Linn, Mo., on Tuesday, February 25, 2020. Alfred Brandt emphasizes that dairy farmers are pushed to have very meticulous practices with antibiotics. If a cow is taking antibiotics, they are milked separately and their milk is not sold.
A cow gets milked on Brandt Dairy Farm in Linn, Mo., on Tuesday, February 25, 2020. Each day Brandt Dairy produces about 1,200 to 1,500 gallons of milk, which is picked up every other day and taken to be bottled at Central Dairy in Jefferson City and then distributed to local grocery stores.

Dairy farms under fire
Alfred Brandt has over 100 mouths to feed — specifically, 130 cows that he milks twice a day. He is a sixth generation dairy farmer and manages Brandt Dairy Farm in Linn, Missouri. His job affords him no breaks, not even weekends.

“On a dairy farm, there’s always something to do,” Brandt said. “Manure needs to be hauled or hay needs to be fed, so there’s very few boring or dull moments on a dairy farm.”

Despite having a contract through Dairy Farmers of America to sell the dairy from his cows to Central Dairy in Jefferson City, Brandt expresses concerns about the industry as a whole. He believes the dairy milk industry is weakening because of misunderstandings about the milk production process.

“It just seems like in the last several months, milk has really been attacked,” Brandt said. He encourages consumers to educate themselves on the milk industry before drawing conclusions.

Food photography

I ran an award-winning food blog called “Good For You” on my high school publication’s website.

Profiles

Rachel Forest, an employee at Lululemon’s pop-up store in Columbia, MO during the store’s opening month in August 2019.