Episode 41: Getting to Know your Hosts Part 1 with Dr. Glenda Pereira
On this episode of the Maine Farmcast, Dr. Knight visits with Dr. Pereira about her background in dairy, education, and research. As the Extension Dairy Specialist, Dr. Pereira conducts applied research and develop educational programs for dairy and livestock producers across the state of Maine and New England. While the Holstein breed is near and dear to her heart, Dr. Pereira admires the Normande breed and her favorite dairy products are sour cream and ice cream. Glenda has a B.S. in Animal Science from the University of Rhode Island and a M.S and Ph.D. in Animal Science from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Pereira started her Extension role at the University of Maine in 2021.
Automated Transcript
Colt Knight: 00:31
Welcome to the Maine Farmcast. I am your host, Dr. Colt Knight, associate extension professor and state livestock specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. And today, I am joined by my good friend and colleague, the state dairy specialist, doctor Glenda Pereira Glenda, welcome to the podcast. And I shouldn’t say welcome because you host this thing about as much as I do.
Glenda Pereira: 00:54
Yes. We take turns, but this feels nice. This feels nice to be welcomed. I’m usually the one doing all of sort of the introduction and the planning. So it feels nice to take some pressure off and just get to hang out with you today.
Colt Knight: 01:08
And like all my podcast, I do not prepare. So everything that comes out of my mouth is completely extemporaneous. I would like to point out that Glenda, when she interviews her guests, she does, like, prepare and she asks questions.
Glenda Pereira: 01:22
Yes.
Colt Knight: 01:23
And she schedules things.
Glenda Pereira: 01:24
I do.Colt Knight: 01:25
And nine times out of 10, I just ambush my guest. I’m like, hey. We’re gonna do a podcast. Come sit down. And then I turn the microphone on and just start.
Colt Knight: 01:35
And whatever happens, happens.
Glenda Pereira: 01:38
Yes. You’re totally right about that. It it’s just who I am. I just I like a schedule. I like to be prepared.
Glenda Pereira: 01:48
And I but I think that adds, some really nice diversity to our podcast episodes because we all have to operate differently. So you you do yours kind of by, you know, the seam of your on the seam of your pants, and I think that’s the saying. But I do mine with a little bit more strategy. But I think, you you know, that just adds to to the diversity of the content that we share with our listeners. So
Colt Knight: 02:14
Yeah. And part of that diversity comes from our differing backgrounds, and and Glenda has a very unique background. She not only grew up in the dairy industry, but she grew up in a different country.
Glenda Pereira: 02:29
Yes.
Colt Knight: 02:29
Not just a different country, an island out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. So, Glenda, could you tell us a little bit about your background?
Glenda Pereira: 02:36
Sure, Colt. Yeah. So, as Colt mentioned and for the farmers and people who have met me here, I’m in the state of Maine. You’ve probably heard me talk about, my background and where I grew up, which was in the Azores specifically. So, I, grew up in the Azores, which is an island in in nine islands off the coast of Portugal.
Glenda Pereira: 03:00
It’s about a two hour flight from, Mainland Portugal. And, we have about, 50,000 cows, lactating cows on that island. So it’s substantial. We have a big dairy production industry. I mean, a big industry in, the island is agriculture.
Glenda Pereira: 03:20
Obviously, marine and aquaculture and, so so the fishing industry is obviously big there too because, obviously, we’re in the middle of the ocean. So we we get to harvest a lot of fish there as well, fish and shellfish. But, yeah. So the Azores, if folks, can look it up, it’s this really beautiful place. I often say it’s the Hawaii of The US.
Glenda Pereira: 03:43
So it’s the Hawaii of Europe is what I call it. The Azores are kind of similar in that aspect. They are volcanic. They actually reside on three tectonic plates. So there are earthquakes, but there’s there’s dormant volcanoes, and all of the islands, are not as young and and, new as the Hawaiian Islands, but, they’re they’re similar in that capacity.
Glenda Pereira: 04:11
So, yeah, that’s kind of a little bit about the Azores and and where I grew up.
Colt Knight: 04:17
And your family actually had a dairy farm.
Glenda Pereira: 04:20
They do still today. Yes. So my dad, and my uncle, so my they’re brothers, and then my grandma, they own and operate a 140 cow, a Holstein registered Holstein, dairy farm in the Azores. And, management there is is pasture based, so we do rely on pasture, to operate. And because it’s, I wouldn’t say it’s very tropical, but in the winter, the temperatures, don’t get to the temperatures in Maine. So we’ll see, like, you know, low forties for your, lowest temperature in the winter. So we’re able to graze throughout the entire year.
And, actually, you know, they’ll they’ll be doing, like, their first cutting, you know, in you know, of the next year in January, and it’s kind of impressive to see that. But yep. So so they do. And, my dad is the second generation. And then, obviously, if I was still part of the, family farm, I’d be the third generation.
So my grandpa, Antonio, started the farm, like other new and beginning farmers with just a goat. From a goat, he then, you know, made some sales, sold some of those kids, and then transitioned to, dairy cows.
Colt Knight: 05:34
My grandpa was a dairyman. He actually went to Boston College to study animal genetics and dairy production, I think in the early fifties. And, when he got out of school, he went to work in a dairy farm in Michigan watching the calves.
Glenda Pereira: 05:52
Yeah. And then he was the calf manager.
Colt Knight: 05:54
Then he got drafted into the Korean War. Yep. And so after he got done with that, he went to work in strip mining, but also had a farm, and they had it was kind of the more diverse Yep. Farm with with everything, a butcher shop, and chickens and eggs, and pigs and cows, and and milk cows. Yep.
Colt Knight: 06:14
But I didn’t grow up in the dairy industry. Grandpa had already got out of the dairy industry by the time that I was old enough to be around.
Glenda Pereira: 06:23
Yeah.
Colt Knight: 06:24
But it it’s always great to hear that our academic folks actually have an applied background. And it’s not just theory that you have some practicing applied knowledge in the industry Right. Which I think folks really appreciate. And then, could you tell us about maybe your education because you’ve got most of that here in The States. Right?
Glenda Pereira: 06:45
Yeah. So, my parents are divorced, so we moved to, The United States, because my mom actually grew up in The United States when she was a teenager. My, whole her her whole side of the family moved here to Rhode Island. But then my grandpa didn’t like the winter, so this is my mom’s side. So he went back to the Azores, moved the whole family back to the Azores.
Glenda Pereira: 07:10
So so my mom went once my parents divorced, then my mom said, hey, you know, we’re gonna move to The US. I liked growing up there. There’s more opportunity there. And so we we did that when I was about 10 years old. I didn’t speak English, so I learned a new language, but but learned it quickly because, you know, as a young kid, you absorb so much information.
Glenda Pereira: 07:30
And so I I grew up for sort of my the second half of my teenage, years in Rhode Island. I did though spend my summers in The Azores with my dad, so we were always on the dairy farm every summer. And it happened to be that one of those summers, one of, my actual actually, who became one of my advisors in graduate school, doctor Les Hansen he was giving a talk in The Azores about pro cross crossbreeding. And so I went to one of these events with my dad. They were like, Hey, this professor is coming.
Glenda Pereira: 08:03
He’s going to be giving this talk workshop in English, doing some extension programming in The Azores. And I went and I met Les and we talked about, you know, inbreeding and all of the Holstein bulls at the time. And that was my, sophomore going into my junior year at the University of Rhode Island and in in an animal science program. And then when I came back, I asked Les, I said, hey. You know, it was awesome to talk to you, talk about the research you’re doing.
Glenda Pereira: 08:30
I’d love to, you know, if there was ever an opportunity to do an internship, explore more about this this topic cross reading. And then he said, hey, you know, there’s this person, doctor Brad Hines, out, here in Minnesota, and he’s doing a lot of work. He accepts interns in the summer. And then that was natural for me. I said, you know, let’s pack up my next summer instead of going to the Azores.
Glenda Pereira: 08:53
Let’s go to Minnesota. And so my, summer of my you know, junior going into senior year, I actually went out and interned in Minnesota, and that’s, kind of how I established that relationship with my advisor, doctor Brad Hines, to do all of my graduate work at the University of Minnesota. And so it’s kind of crazy because in the dairy industry, we have this saying, probably similar to the livestock industry, it’s the small. Right? So, if for folks that can’t see it, I’m, like, putting my fingers together to how big some of our industries are and how interconnected they are.
Glenda Pereira: 09:28
So, you know, I was, you know, a kid in the Azores, went to this meeting, met doctor Les Hansen, and then I, kind of started my graduate career, which helped me to be in the prepared me for the role that I’m in today. So, yeah, that’s kind of a a little bit of a background of how I actually ended up in grad school, which I always like to share, because you you need to network. You never know, who you’re meeting today, might become either your supervisor or your colleague or somebody that you work with in the future. Right?
Colt Knight: 10:00
And and I think a lot of folks are are unaware of what graduate school is or if it exists, and it’s just a it’s a continuing education that does more of a deep dive into the specific topics. But, you know, when I was growing up, if you heard the term graduate school or or something, you were thinking, like, someone that studies poetry or
Glenda Pereira: 10:22
Philosophy. Or English literature
Colt Knight: 10:24
or something like that. And and I didn’t even know that animal science world existed, so I didn’t know that you could go to school and study livestock or and then beyond that, I didn’t know that you could get into research and extension and everything. So that was a big culture shock for me when I first went to college and learned about these things.
Glenda Pereira: 10:46
Right. And I
Colt Knight: 10:46
think it’s a good good idea because there’s a lot of folks you know, very few folks now grow up on a farm. Yep. And then but there’s a lot more folks wanting to get into the the farming or agriculture world and livestock world, but they don’t have that in like we did Yeah. Growing up. Yep.
Colt Knight: 11:03
And so we now see 80 to 90% of our introduction to animal science class is coming from the city life or a non ag background. And then it’s like, how do those kids progress into the ag world? And graduate school and and undergraduate is how they do it.
Glenda Pereira: 11:21
Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. And so what I didn’t share is that my my uncle that operates the farm with my dad, his wife is a veterinarian. So in the summers, I also got to help her with some stuff because, again, like every other undergraduate animal science student, you’re gonna become a vet.
Glenda Pereira: 11:43
And we did I helped her with so many, spay and neuters that summer, that I said, you know what? I don’t think, you you know, that this is this is the path I wanna go on. And so but I think, you know, helping her and doing that work with her really helped, me in my decision to say when I went to Minnesota and I did that internship on the farm and it was so exciting to, you know, collect pasture samples and do a nutritional analysis of that forage, work with, technologies and monitoring technologies specific to dairy, and and collect data and do all of that research and then find out that there was this other path that was not, you know, solely to be a veterinarian, that you could still, have the same impact, right? Because we always think, you know, how do we have and make an impact on animals? Well, one, you know, health is so important.
Glenda Pereira: 12:35
So we’re like, that’s kind of the backbone of everything. But then can we help farmers, on the health side by, you know, collecting data and implementing monitoring technologies, or helping with their soil analysis, forage analysis, and all of these other things? So there’s more, to that. And finding that out, like you said, was, you know, just a shock. Like, I can do I can still learn so much about this topic and help, somebody with their bottom line that’s not necessarily tied to specifically just going to vet school and then being in a large animal veterinarian.
Colt Knight: 13:10
And let’s be honest. You know, the vet school world’s kinda like being a professional athlete. There’s only very limited number of folks that that are gonna get in. Yeah. I think average acceptance rate is about seven to 8%.
Glenda Pereira: 13:22
It is lower.
Colt Knight: 13:22
We’re higher here at the University of Maine. We were, like, 12 or 13%. Yeah. But still pretty marginal.
Glenda Pereira: 13:28
Yeah. Absolutely. So yeah. I mean, my experience and internship at the University of Minnesota with my advisor and mentor, Dr. Brad Heins, was invaluable, to to get me to where I am today.
Colt Knight: 13:42
Yeah. And where you’re at today is the University of Maine Yes. Dairy specialist. You’ve got a really long title
Glenda Pereira: 13:49
I do.
Colt Knight: 13:50
Because you do so much here. You have a teaching appointment. You do applied research. You are on the PFAS task force as one of the the head PFAS, experts that we have here in the state of Maine. You work with dairy production clients.
Colt Knight: 14:08
Yeah. You’re teaching introduction to animal science lab this fall, which is which is a big undertaking. Yep. And you just started a new family.
Glenda Pereira: 14:18
Yes. Yes.
Colt Knight: 14:18
You are a busy person.
Glenda Pereira: 14:20
Yes. Yes. And we bought a house this year too here in Maine, which that was a whole roller coaster. The housing market in general has just been a roller coaster. So, yeah, like Colt mentioned, my husband and I, we we welcomed our son, Boston this year, and so we’ve been keeping busy with him as well because, becoming a parent is certainly a big learning curve.
Glenda Pereira: 14:46
You know, grad school is a learning curve. Your new role in a faculty position is a learning curve. Starting a farm is a learning curve. But being a parent certainly, you know, kicks it up a notch, and definitely, makes you humble to the things that you don’t know. But I think I’ve always, and I think being in grad school and doing research has always, given me that perspective, you know.
Glenda Pereira: 15:08
I think that’s what’s really exciting, part of our jobs is that we don’t know, right? We always have to keep adapting, and helping our clients, address the challenges that they’re going to be facing in the future. So we’re always learning. And then once you think you know something, you know, once I started in this position, I was like, oh, I’m gonna do dairy production work. You know, I have this background in, precision dairy technologies.
Glenda Pereira: 15:33
I wanna do some projects with that. And then it was like, hey, have you heard about, these forever chemicals? And then it kind of really steered me into this whole other, area of expertise that I was not prepared for. But in grad school, we learn how to ask questions and more questions. And so I think I think that really helped me prepare to be in this role and to actually tackle the PFAS, issue we’ve had in Maine, which is something we’ll talk about in a future episode because, it’s a it’s a lot, to to discuss.
Colt Knight: 16:06
I’m curious. What is the day in the life of a dairy specialist like here at the state of Maine?
Glenda Pereira: 16:14
Never the same schedule. So, it it really depends. I’ve been in this role for almost three years, just shy of three years, in October of twenty twenty four. So my day to day in the fall, because that’s when I teach, looks like, you know, preparing for classes, teaching, and then addressing client calls, of course. But because I’m a new professor, I’m still really, you know, creating the classes that I teach, so that takes a little bit more of my time.
Glenda Pereira: 16:45
In the spring and in the summer is really when I get to, you know, like really be hands on with a lot of my projects. So I would say it depends on a day to day, answering client questions, which, you know, sometimes are really specific or it takes me some time to find out answers if if it’s something we don’t have a good resource for here in the state of Maine. I’m currently doing a project with the UNH dairy specialist, Sarah Allen. She’s, you know, kind of like my extension the extension of my role here in in New Hampshire because we we work on a lot of the same, areas of need for for the dairy industry in New Hampshire and in Maine. I’ve been working on this calf and heifer project where we’re working with, five farms in Maine and five farms in New Hampshire, and we’re, sort of going through their their calf management practices currently and how we can improve that, trying to, like you mentioned, in a in a earlier episode, trying to not do it at a cost, but what is something free that we can do, and help them with.
Glenda Pereira: 17:51
So we’ve been taking a lot of calf and heifer metrics to understand how they’re growing. Is their nutrition program working? Is their cleanliness protocol working? Is their colostrum pro program working? And that project has really been successful.
Glenda Pereira: 18:05
So that’s the second time I do a project with a group of farmers, because the farmers, also get to come together five times during the the time limit of this this project and really drive the discussion and the conversation and, farmers learn from each other. So so doing this project, you know, I have one on one technical assistance with them, where we kind of look at their data, look at benchmarks that exist, kind of try to, you know, improve some of their benchmarks, but also we we get this space where farmers get to just say like, hey, this is what’s going on. How did you tackle this challenge? How did you address this? And and so I think there’s really that opportunity of getting them together.
Glenda Pereira: 18:44
I mean, for folks that don’t know, farming and dairy farming specifically is a twice a day, every day thing. Right? Cows get milked twice a day. So farmers are dairy farmers are really busy folks. They you know, we do a lot of this programming between milking times, right between morning and afternoon milking because they have to get back into that dairy parlor, and and milk those cows.
Glenda Pereira: 19:09
So they get they get to get off the farm and they get to do a little, socializing too with the other farmers, which I’ve really seen is a is a great benefit. So that’s kind of a little bit bit about that. So a lot of emailing, a lot of planning for future programs. Right now, we’re applying for a lot of grants, to conduct PFAS research specifically within the dairy industry, which hasn’t, really happened. So we we don’t have a lot of the data to then support, you know, how do we mitigate, and and tackle this PFAS issue.
Glenda Pereira: 19:40
So so there’s been a lot of that, as well writing grants, and and seeking funding to be able, to address this this challenge, which, has taken up a a lot of my time, but it’s important. Right? It’s it’s an important need for our state and for, my dairy clients.
Colt Knight: 19:59
And how much traveling do you do? I I mean, I do a ton of in state traveling, but I also do quite a bit of national and international but I was curious how much travel you get to
Glenda Pereira: 20:19
do. So in the past year, it’s been, it’s been variable because I was pregnant for a large percentage of that time and then obviously on maternity leave. So this year has looked different. I do a lot of in state traveling great now, and this since I’ve been back from maternity leave, and I’d say I do a percentage of that. But last year, I and I and I and I say this to I kid I kid about this.
Glenda Pereira: 20:49
I’m like, my son’s already been to a bunch of places because he came to me, you know, to Michigan. He came with me, to Nashville, Tennessee. So so there’s there’s there’s that too. But, this year, I won’t be doing much traveling because there’s a lot of, conferences and workshops happening here in the state of Maine. But last year alone, I went to Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, and Tennessee, like I mentioned, and those were all out of state, which which was a lot.
Glenda Pereira: 21:20
So so that’s a a lot of travel, but, I’ve kind of, you you know, decreased the amount of travel for this year specifically because my son’s only six months old. And so that brings on a new challenge, into itself. But I’m definitely looking forward to getting back, out of state and doing some out of state, education as well.
Colt Knight: 21:42
Yeah. And as specialists, we we travel to these conferences and and opportunities quite a bit. And sometimes, I think folks don’t realize what we’re actually doing. And that’s we’re getting our continuing education. Right.
Colt Knight: 21:54
So we’re learning all the newest research from all of our peers across the country and or sometimes even worldwide. And then we’re sharing what we do to everyone. So it it’s kind of it ends up being a small world because we we all meet at these conferences and share ideas and and gain new knowledge, do professional development opportunities. Sometimes we’re at industry meetings, so we get to learn about the economics and the challenges, affecting our industries. And it’s a really important part of what we do is that so we don’t get stuck in just our graduate education, which I’ve seen happen, you know, people that don’t get out and move around.
Colt Knight: 22:36
It’s like they’re twenty years behind the times.
Glenda Pereira: 22:39
Right.
Colt Knight: 22:39
It’s really important to us to stay up.
Glenda Pereira: 22:41
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. No. You’re absolutely right.
Glenda Pereira: 22:44
We need we need to get, exposed to other techniques and other methods of, doing, you you know, something within the dairy production world because we can bring that information back to our industries. And I do some of that. So in collaboration with the Maine Dairy Industry Association, every year, we host a big dairy seminar that draws in about a 20 to a 50 people. And so that’s every year in the spring in March. And we bring in we we try to bring in a renowned speaker, so somebody that’s external to Maine, to to bring in some of that information, obviously, based on feedback and needs of our farmers.
Glenda Pereira: 23:20
So there’s obviously that big educational component, but we try to bring bring some of that content back here in Maine. And, of course, we and and I get some of that, you know, train the trainer information as well from those people that we do get to bring in. And so through this podcast as well, I think we’ve been doing a lot of learning from our featured speakers. I know every time I set up a rec and record a podcast episode, you know, I have those twenty to thirty minutes before we record the episode to talk to that person. For example, for our CAF stuff that I I’ve been recording, we I shared about the information, in the program that I’m doing here, and and this person had done a lot of that work.
Glenda Pereira: 23:59
And so we kind of shared information back and forth in how can I better help my clients? They shared some tidbits about that. So this you’re right. This is a really exciting space, and it’s great to get out there and see, what other states and what other extension agents are doing.
Colt Knight: 24:14
I know. One of the things that I’ve really learned from doing these podcasts and we’ve we started I started in October recording podcast. And I was going to all these different meetings and and meeting really exciting and and knowledgeable folks. And I was like, you know, it’s a shame that I can’t share their knowledge that I’m getting when I go to these meetings with with the agricultural public here in Maine. And so that’s why I started carrying a microphone.
Colt Knight: 24:43
And we would sit down in a empty conference room or a hotel room, and I could interview people so that we could share the information. And, you know, that spread. And then I started inviting people to Maine to speak, get in person events. And while we’re driving around in the vehicle, I’m talking to them and and learning a lot. And then we would do a podcast, and I would learn something from the podcast.
Colt Knight: 25:09
So I get a lot of professional development from the podcast. And our guest speakers learn from us as well. Yep. You know, I’m I’ll be going to, Kentucky this fall to give some small scale marketing and diversification advice to Kentucky producers who were traditionally cow calf producers, but they’re adapting to the new world of social media and direct sales. And so, so I got I’m gonna get to go to Kentucky this fall to do that.
Colt Knight: 25:41
Do do you have those experiences as well?
Glenda Pereira: 25:44
Yes. And, like I mentioned to you, this upcoming, the this up The next couple of years for me look like a lot of of train the trainer stuff on PFAS. I actually was able to give one of those, presentations at a meeting last year because there’s so much that people don’t know about it. And, it’s it’s definitely an area where the dairy industry is still learning a lot about PFAS. And so, that that’s what that looks like for me is that that’s an area where we’re gonna be exploring.
Glenda Pereira: 26:22
And then, we’re gonna be, once our prod once our calf and heifer project finalizes too, it it’s based in, Maine and New Hampshire, but, we’re gonna kind of use the data we collect to assess, where we’re at with growing calves and heifers in New England because it looks very different than the rest of the country. Right? Something that we were looking at for benchmarks was, like, average daily gains and what they are, in the Midwest versus what they are here in the Northeast. And that doesn’t look the same. And so we were like, we need to maybe do even some more, education on what’s realistic for the New England area, versus, you know, trying to make our benchmark comparisons to the Midwest or out West.
Glenda Pereira: 27:07
So we’ll be doing some of that, you know, train the trainer in the New England states and Northeastern states as well. Once the project, comes to an end, which I’m excited for, to kind of share, here’s what we learned, and here’s where I think we need to do a better job in supporting our dairy, farmers with calf and heifer rearing. And this isn’t new. So, you you you know, in the dairy industry, we’ve kind of, maybe put, like, calf and hefewe rearing aside because, you know, where does the milk check come from? It’s it’s that dairy cow.
Glenda Pereira: 27:37
But how do we raise these animals that are gonna be entering, the production line in two years? So So there’s been a lot of work and a lot of focus on that. And so, I think in New England, we we need to kind of step up our calf, and heifer rearing program so that we can do our best job, because it costs money to raise those calves in heifers. And we wanna do that as efficiently as we can. But but it’s gonna produce a better animal for us in the long run.
Glenda Pereira: 28:04
So, that’s kind of where some of my focus is on right now.
Colt Knight: 28:09
And before we let you go on the podcast today, I wanted to bring up when we hired Glenda, I was on the committee, and I was really excited about about Dr. Pereira coming to Maine because she had a lot of exciting ideas. And she was doing a lot of work with sensor Yeah. Technologies and precision agriculture, which those of you that know me, that’s one of my, my one of my deals. Right? My lab manufactures and tests livestock tracking collars.
Colt Knight: 28:43
And we have GPS tracking collars all across the world. And I get to meet every year at different conferences with other folks working with sensor technology, not in the dairy world, but in the beef cattle world and small ruminant world about sensor technology and everything. And so when Glenda first came here, I was all excited because we were gonna do all this collaboration with Precision Livestock Management and whatnot, and then that ugly PFAS raised its head. And now all her attention is being diverted into PFAS, and we haven’t really done much together with sensor stuff. And so I’m hoping that we will eventually get to get together and do some more.
Glenda Pereira: 29:24
Yeah. And I’ll say too, you know, it’s it’s it takes a a while to get established in your faculty roles or in your your role as a professor. I mean, you kind of have to, like, figure out your own path first before, like, trying to maybe dive into more collaboration. So like I mentioned, I’m doing this cohort group project on calves and heifers, and that’s really exciting because it gets me out on the farm. It gets me out with farmers.
Glenda Pereira: 29:50
But, previous to that project, I got a grant last year, and I worked similarly with five farmers, and I actually got them five, you know, systems for their farms. So we actually put sensors on five farms here in the state of Maine last year, and it was a a technology that I was really comfortable working with. And so we had a lot of fun looking at that data, looking at how we can use data specifically to change, management strategies on the farm. So I continued some of that work, and, there’s there’s more farmers here in the state of Maine that increased, their access to technologies, which is really exciting for me because, I’m actually gonna be doing a a project with some farmers looking at data, and utilizing their data and their technology data for more than just, you know, we get these heat alerts, we we get these health events alerts, but kind of bringing their team together and saying, you know, what if we changed the time that we feed from this time to that time? Can we look at pen moves?
Glenda Pereira: 30:54
Can we look at specific behaviors and processes during the day? And how can we, improve those and make them more efficient on your farm. So I’m still doing a lot of that technology work, which, is what I did, my master’s, work in, is looking at data. But not only that, we’re actually we actually have the system now here at the Witter Farm, which trains the next generation, of ag, service providers. Right?
Glenda Pereira: 31:22
We have an animal science program here. And so the students here will actually get access, to our system here on the farm. And all the cows now have, this the sensor and tech technology. And so I actually have a lab where the students will play a bit with the data because, if our students wanna be successful in the agriculture industry, and a lot of them tend to work more with small companion and large animals, they need to understand how to utilize the data, because more and more people are implementing that not only with, their, you know, live stock, but there are some people who have been, you know, implementing cameras to see what their, you know, pets or animals are doing at home. And so there’s some companies looking into, like, actually animal behavior and on a companion animal, level, which is really exciting.
Glenda Pereira: 32:09
So we’re we’re we’re helping train the the future, generation of ag service providers, which is really exciting too. So I kind of really, really, am thankful for both of the grants that I got. Those were through the Northeast Air Business Innovation Center, to be able to conduct this work with the farmers and get them more equipment and more resources, to, at the end of the day, improve their bottom line.
Colt Knight: 32:34
So to transition to our outro, what has been your favorite part about moving to Maine so far?
Glenda Pereira: 32:43
Let’s see. So I was I I grew up in New England. So so it was kind of exciting to be back, as my husband says, the in Pat’s nation. Right? So we’re back in in, Super Bowl country because, no offense, but the Vikings never won a Super Bowl.
Glenda Pereira: 33:00
So when we were in Minnesota, he was always like, you know, the Vikings are an okay team. So it’s great to be back in New England. I love the foliage in the fall. It it’s just, you know, a reminder of how, things change throughout the year and we adapt and, change as well. But I think, one of the things, that’s been exciting about being back in Maine, is is being closer to family.
Glenda Pereira: 33:25
And so like I mentioned in the beginning, we expanded our family this year. And having my folks be so close, and near in Rhode Island, it it’s been something that we’ve been looking, forward to. I mean and so spending more time with, but but I love I love Maine. You know, the weather’s great. I’ll say in the winter, our weather is, like, mild.
Glenda Pereira: 33:48
You know, coming from Minnesota, this is nice. This is a nice winter. But but, yeah, we’re we’re excited to be back in New England, and so that was always one of the the goals was to move back, to the area.
Colt Knight: 34:01
Alright. Well, thank you for elaborating on your career and life story. It was very interesting to to learn more about Glenda, and we look forward to listening in on your future podcast on the Maine Farmcast.
Glenda Pereira: 34:18
Thanks, Colt.
Colt Knight: 34:19
The Maine Farmcast wants to hear your thoughts on episodes, questions, so email us at extension.farmcast@maine.edu.
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