Behind the barn doors at Edmonton's urban farm
'You might know 146 people. I know 146 animals in the barn and I know them inside and out'
'Round these parts, they call him the cow whisperer.
Harold Lehman leans over to pet a calf inside the University of Alberta dairy on the south campus.
"I started as a milker," smiles Lehman. "I was just a young lad of 24."
"You might know 146 people. I know 146 animals in the barn and I know them inside and out. I really took pride in knowing the animals," said Lehman.
Stan Blade also grew up on dairy farm and now is the dean of the faculty of agricultural, life and environmental sciences.
The south campus farm has a long and rich history of agricultural research, he said.
"If you know where the Northern Jubilee Auditorium is? That use to be our cow barn area. We would drive our cattle to pasture in the 30's and the 40's and now as you can see, it's a modern research facility doing all sorts of interesting things," he said.
"It's like the jewel of our faculty."
He points to crop research just gearing up and industry advances in poultry, swine and dairy.
"All of those things that are important for Alberta farmers, for Canadian farmers," he said. "That work is going on right here at our research station."
The farm's history is celebrated at the Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences Museum snuggled between Foote Field and the Saville Community Sports Centre.
Curator Jack Francis, who began working in animal research at the university in 1949, has collected more than 500 artifacts from hand tools used to work the fields to horse drawn buggies and carriages.
The museum is run by volunteers and the public can make an appointment to stroll down agricultural memory lane.
As for Harold Lehman, after 32 years the cow whisperer is retiring from the dairy with many stories of his own.
"This is actually my last week, it's been a privilege, I've enjoyed every minute of it," he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
