Living on a farm makes for a tough, hard working, long schedule everyday. Junior Evan Duske lives this life every day on his farm in Montrose.
The Duske farm has 60 dairy cows to tend to, but 300 overall with young stock and steers. They also have two bulls, to breed with other females. Just hearing that, it sounds like a lot of work to keep up on.
“My uncle usually milks the cows in the morning, but he’s on vacation right now,” Duske said. “So lately I’ve been getting up at five-thirty in the morning to milk and feed them. I milk thirty cows, my dad milks the other thirty. We milk every night as well.”
Evan starts off his day by getting up at 5:30 and driving to his grandparents’ farm, as that is where he milks cows. His grandparents’ house is about a mile down the road. He milks until about seven forty-five, then heads back to his house. Then he showers and eats breakfast until eight twenty. He then leaves for school.
After school, he needs to milk his share of cows once again which takes him about an hour and a half. He doesn’t name his cows but instead they each have a tag with a number. Once he gets home from school at around 4 o’clock, he chills for a little bit and has a snack. Once he is done with his afternoon snack, he relaxes before his night of work. He feeds the cows again at about five fifteen.
“I get home at four, eat some snacks, chill till a little after five, then go feed the cows,” Duske said “Once I am done milking at around seven thirty, we might have to feed a newborn calf.”
After his final milking, that concludes the daily schedule of Evan Duske in the winter. The next day, he’s up at 5:30 to do it all again.
As Evan has dedicated a huge chunk of his life to being on the family farm, it affects his school life as he chooses to devote his time to working rather than participating in after school activities.
“I realized I didn’t have a future in high school basketball so I decided to start more time into the farm”, Duske said. “The farm has become my future.”
