MAURICE, Iowa (KTIV) -
KTIV's Meteorologist Riley O'Connor stepped outside the studio this month to try a new in a new line of work; farming!
He considers himself a city boy, but decided to spread his wings and get out of his comfort zone. This hands on hands on "workshop" took him to the Maassen Dairy Farm in Maurice, Iowa.
Farmer, Aaron Maassen asked, "Have you ever been on a tractor before?"
"When I was a little kid, but I really don't remember and it was a small tractor," said Meteorologist Riley O'Connor
"We are going to plant hopefully in the next 2 weeks," Maassen said.
In 15 minutes one row was done, meaning their were 700 acres to go! Once Riley's corn was planted it was time to move to the next task. Feeding livestock!
"Come here, are you hungry? I don't know if I am going to have luck with this", Riley said.
Some of them weren't too hungry, at least not for their feed. The calves seemed more interested in sucking on his fingers.
"There ya go buddy. Ok, alright", Riley said.
His next assignment was to do something he'd always wanted to try; milking a cow!
"On this location just dairy cows, we have just about 600 cows," Stefan Maassen stated.
"I'm just a little nervous about this. Where is it? Do I just pull? Is it going to kick me?" Riley asked. "How come it is not coming out?"
Finally, he did it! And he was pretty proud of what he'd accomplished with the Maassens. He planted, fed and milked, seemed like that would be it right? Wrong! Don't forget about what is left behind when nature calls. Come on, it can't be that much right?
"4000 tons or so," Adam Maassen said .
That's right, 4000 tons of manure! By the numbers, each pen gets cleaned once a week. That equals about 15-20 loads every seven days from now until fall. Now don't think Riley picked all of this up with a pitch fork!
"Wow, you get the smell of it now, don't you," Riley said.
"And this is the worst when you stir it up. Once you pile it up again, the rain pushes everything in and so it is shelled so it doesn't vaporize like it does now when you are doing it," Maassen said/
" I don't think I did so bad, " Riley added.
"That was pretty good," responded Maassen.
Well there it is, Riley passed the test. After a hard day's work KTIV's weatherman was in need of a good meal and a long nap!
