Adrienne Hermiston finds satisfaction performing a job that might make the average city-slicker cringe.

Hermiston, senior in animal science, is one of several animal caretakers for the department of animal science who feeds, breeds and keeps the animals at the ISU farms healthy.

Cleaning up cow manure and grooming cattle are things Hermiston said she has grown to love.

“[Taking care of animals] is what I’ve been doing for most of my life,” she said. “I heard about the job one day when I was 14 and I thought it would be pretty good if I could stick with it.”

Adam Conover, graduate student in animal science and caretaker of pigs at the ISU farms, said he has been around animals for a long time.

“I guess you could say I was born into it,” Conover said. “I grew up raising Berkshire hogs.”

Conover said his job includes everything from cleaning up manure to breeding sows and processing pigs. He said there are two methods of cleaning up after the animals on the swine farm.

“We have facilities that are slated floors, where it falls through,” Conover said.

“Then we collect it periodically as a liquid waste product. In some facilities we have the older style of using a scoop shovel.”

Jessica Jacobsen, senior in animal science, said the farm she works on takes a more manual approach to waste management.

“At the Iowa State horse farm we have buckets that are called ‘muck buckets’ and manure picks, and we just sift through all of the sawdust for any feces or urine spots that are created by the horses,” Jacobsen said. “You pick them out and either put them in the ‘muck buckets’ or in a wheelbarrow.”

Jacobsen said the manure is then put into a large manure wagon where it is brought to Iowa State’s dairy farm.

“From there the manure is composted and utilized for spreading on fields for fertilizer,” she said.

Jacobsen said while scooping up poop, she prefers “dry and dusty” to “wet and soupy” because it doesn’t splash everywhere. She said she has a very strong stomach, and has only been grossed out a few times.

“The grossest thing I’ve seen on the job is when we had a mare who had foals last year and had a rectal prolapse and a lower rectal tear, and so she was bleeding a lot,” she said.

“You’re feeling a little bit queasy because she has all the same parts that us females working with her have.”

Jacobsen said experiences such as that are difficult to deal with because she feels very close to the animals she works with.

“You get attached to the horses so it affects you both emotionally and a little bit physically,” she said. “I don’t get grossed out very easily, but that might be the grossest thing for your average city slicker.”

Hermiston said she isn’t bothered by cleaning up after the animals. She said she has become accustomed to the sight and smell of the manure.

“That’s part of the job,” Hermiston said.

Being an animal caretaker is a lot of work, Hermiston said. Along with taking care of the animals, the workers also dispose of weeds and bale hay.

“The craziest thing I’ve done is chopping down weeds in a pasture with a machete, a spade and a beehook,” she said.

Jacobsen said although the job can be dirty at times, all of the hard work is worth it when she sees a foal being born. She said it is one of the most amazing things about her job.

“You get this overwhelming sense of warmth seeing nature happen at its very best,” Jacobsen said. “It’s just a wonderful warm feeling that you get inside knowing that you’re watching a life be born.”

Conover said his job is a good way to meet new people, and he enjoys working with the animals.

Jacobsen said people don’t have to be very experienced to work at an ISU farm.

“You just need to have a love for animals,” she said. “We have people who work at the horse farm who have no horse background. We come in; we teach them how to clean out a stall. It’s a teaching farm, so we’re willing to teach anybody who has a love for animals and wants to truly learn and be there.”

Hermiston said it is a great job for people who love to be outside and around animals.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do professionally, but no matter what I do or where I go I will always have animals and most likely cattle,” Hermiston said.