I am a Teaching Assistant for Gary Gregory for the ANS 240, the Livestock Merchandising class at NCSU. As a Teaching Assistant, I focus on teaching the beef lab related to the class for which I train students in halter breaking, managing and preparing a group of cattle for livestock sale. I also am in charge of preparing the cattle section of the catalog.

Hartman Farms is my family's farm located in Walnut Cove, NC. On the farm, I assist in the seeding of the greenhouse, greenhouse maintenance and planting of tobacco and small grains. I also serve as a crew/field manager when working the tobacco crop, overseeing workers. Aside from field crop production, I managed the farm's cattle production by making breeding, grazing, nutrition and health plans. I also run the show cattle barn including nutrition, breeding, and buying of the cattle. I also select which cattle are run through the on-farm meat market while also collaborating with customers and buyers on better ways to market our products.

From the start of the internship, I studied the Pork Industry, its history, its importance to agriculture and regulations surrounding the industry. On top of that, I communicated with legislators, government staff and other lobbyists about agriculture. Most interactions with legislators were focused on key issues surrounding the industry, which demanded that I research different statistics about production and knowing talking points about issues.