Green Girl Abroad: Ilmajoki farm training

Wednesday and Thursday of our third week marked the start of our school farm work in Ilmajoki. While Sarah and Valerie went to work at the MTT research facility, the other Sara, Chase, our new Czech classmate Jiri and I met with Juha Ketola; the Ilmajoki farm manager to begin our training.

The farm is run almost entirely by students preparing for work in the ag industry. They help cultivate the 150 acres of fields SeAmk has for production and hands-on education. This is a job requiring work 365 days a year, especially considering the many cows, pigs and sheep cared for alongside the crops. It’s harvest time in Finland and after reaping this year’s yield there is a lot of straw and hay leftover in the fields that must be removed to prepare for the next season of cultivation. A round-baler comes to the field and drives down the rows, collecting and rolling the plant material into a big cylindrical bale. This leftover product is used for animal bedding, feed depending on the grain, or mixed with manure to create a more solid fertilizing substance. We began by learning to drive and operate a hay bale-loading tractor. This machine grabs the round bales of hay with a pair of movable grabbing arms, lifting them for transport and stacking. This requires a bit of manual dexterity on the operator’s part; working the manual transmission as well as the two grabbing levers while accurately picking up, lifting and moving these large bales on and off a trailer (without hitting it) is not an easy task.

I’m constantly surprised at the level of trust put in us as students new to these large, expensive pieces of equipment! Juha takes us one-by-one and gives us instructions for operating the tractor, then we get a chance to drive them around a big open field by ourselves before trying to move the bales. Juha stands by watching us, ready to help if we have questions or are doing something wrong. It can be a little awkward in the beginning, trying to think of the steps required to successfully get the job done but I think it makes a big difference not having a scrutinizing eye over your shoulder or an easy out when you get frustrated and want to let someone more experienced come move a tricky bale for you. The independence given to students provides a great chance to find your own comfortable pace in learning and a valuable problem solving opportunity when your original plan isn’t working the way you hoped. My good friend Sara and I moved bales together, offering each other a supportive outside perspective if we were having trouble. After loading bales onto a trailer, we took turns driving the tractor with the trailer from the field to the barns where we stacked them neatly on a corner with the bale loader; another challenging but educational activity. With Juha’s encouragement, patience and help we gained a lot of experience from our practice that day.

The following day we got to harvest a field of barley with a combine harvester. Much of the harvest would be sold just down the road to the Koskenkorva Vodka factory. Before getting behind the wheel of this huge piece of machinery, Juha gave us an overview of how the harvester functions so we understand the various parts and steps involved to efficiently remove just the grain from the grass and discard all other plant material. It is really incredible to think about how much the harvester takes in and separates in a matter of seconds. Juha showed us the combine controls and let us drive around a field to get used to the rear-steering system before heading to the field for work. After each lap around the two-hectare plot, we pulled the harvester next to the grain trailer to unload before the next round. We finished almost the whole field but stopped after our second trailer-full of barley. I can tell by the smile on Juha’s face how much he loves harvesting as well as the pride he takes in his work teaching the students and producing such a bountiful yield after months of care.

Wednesday night we went to Seinajoki to show Jiri around a little and attend a party in the park with the other students. It’s so funny seeing groups of people laughing and sharing beers in a big open field right next to the Alvar Aalto church with regular townspeople walking through, entertained by the commotion (drinking in public is illegal in California). There is a real sense of camaraderie between the students and though we didn’t plan on meeting anyone there, we ran into many friends from Ilmajoki who introduced us to even more new ones. Since we are our own class of six international students it is sometimes hard to maintain relationships with the people we meet because we have our own busy schedule apart form theirs. Despite this, it’s so nice to feel welcome among our peers and united by the awesome university we are apart of.