Taylor Foster: Foreman in Jerome, ID

As the Foreman/Herdsman at the Desperado Dairy, I oversee all aspects of the day to day operations on the 2,000 cow dairy and am directly involved in their completion. I manage 11 full time and relief milker positions, as well as a feeder and four other outside employees. Along with the owner, I make the managerial decisions regarding the overall efficiency of the dairy and how the jobs will be done. Aside from managing, I make all of the medical treatment decisions for the dairy's fresh and hospital cows, as will as do the administering.

For six weeks I attended Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Quantico, VA. As a candidate participating in the Juniors segment of the Platoon Leaders Course, I was screened, trained, and evaluated on my potential abilities to serve as a company grade officer in the Marine Corps. At OCS, you are graded on 3 categories. Leadership, academics, and physical fitness. I excelled at the Juniors portion of training and was scheduled to return for the final six weeks, or Seniors, the summer following my graduation from college. Unfortunately I was forced to make a decision between the continued pursuit of my air contract with the Marine Corps, or returning to the family farm. I had no intentions of returning home, but our business was facing some very trying times in the winter and spring of 2012, which caused me to make the very difficult decision to terminate my contract with the Marine Corps and begin work managing the family dairy.