Most people work a 9-to- 5 job; for UTM senior Brady Brown, it’s nearly the opposite. His days begin about 5 a.m. and do not come to a close until after 9 p.m.
Brown spent 13 years working on his father’s farm. He began as a helping hand at age 8 and has since learned the trade that allows him, at the age of 21, to run the farm and give his dad a break.
In 1982, the barn and farm were smaller. Brady’s great- grandfather ran a few cows and hauled hay when they first came into the lifestyle. However, in the past 36 years, that farm has progressed into a poultry powerhouse. The farm’s eight barns, which are operated by Brady’s father, Darryl, and his brothers, house roughly 88,000 chickens. Those barns are the largest running chicken operation in Lawrence County.
Brady says that working on a farm is bred into a true farmer and he misses the work even while in school. His working habits and dedication to the task have made him the student that he is today at UTM. He will graduate in December with a degree in Pre-Veterinary Medicine.
“I can’t imagine a life where I don’t [run a farm]. … I’ve always said since I was little, I was going to buy my great- grandparents’ farm. I don’t want to lose something that’s been in my family for three generations,” Brady says.
“I think I want to have a farm for the family aspect of it. I don’t think there’s anything better for a kid than getting up and handling animals and having responsibilities on the farm and learning how to do stuff that gets your hands dirty. It’s good to be tired by the end of the day. I think it prepares you better for life,” Brady says.
His mornings back home in Lawrence County start at 6 a.m. Farm chores begin by showering into the chicken barn, a process necessary to prevent the spread of diseases from humans to chickens. Then the feeders must be turned on and the lights allowed to cut on, so the chickens do not get feed shock. All of these tasks must be done by 7 a.m.
Until 10 a.m. Brady runs the full gamut of the barn, making sure there are no leaks, evaluating for dead chickens and ensuring that every operation runs smoothly. After all, those 26 weeks that the Browns raise the chicks is crucial to the health
and reproductivity of them later in life. After their 26 weeks of adolescence, the chicks are sent on to another farm for breeding. This pullet farming has shaped the structure of Brady’s life and given him a routine of hard work before play.
Even while across the state in school, he jolts awake to the buzz of an alarm clock at 6 a.m. and begins his day with a quick breakfast before settling in to the familiar routine of work, school, workouts and studying.
Brady has spent the past three years on the UTM campus studying pre-veterinary medicine. After 17 credit hours a semester, 17 hours working
each week and every other waking moment studying in the library, Brady finds himself more and more prepared for his medical journey to continue in vet school in the fall of 2019. He is finishing his undergraduate work in three and a half years and knows that his internship experience at two different animal hospitals, his father’s farm and the West Tennessee Animal Disease and Diagnostic Lab on campus, has been essential to his progress.
Brady plans to take off one semester from school to save up money and gain more experience before submerging himself back in books and libraries.
Though his work has varied from animal hospitals, to labs, to farms, he says that one of his greatest skills to learn has been how to talk with others.
“Sometimes you’ve got a farmer that just wants to know if they need to put their animal down or not, but other times someone comes in willing to pay any dollar amount to save their baby. You have to understand how to communicate with the clients about the patients and be able to juggle multiple cases at one time. It can be overwhelming,” Brady says.
Working with clients and veterinarians has given him a wider range of information to
work with, in order to grow as a student and farmer. He has also been able to find comfort in some of his classes and the tasks that come with them, like necropsies.
“It’s oddly relaxing. To see what ‘normal’ is inside an animal and then use that to tell the farmer why it died … there’s nothing that has helped me more to learn anatomy and physiology,” Brady says.
Though his journey requires more years of studying, Brady knows that his experiences, family and college have prepared him for his future.
“You have to take risks to make it. Sometimes you’re going to fail, sometimes you’re not. It worked out for us. [My dad] wasn’t afraid to do what he had to, to provide a better life for his family. … I will do the same,” Brady says.
Whether his day ends at 9 p.m. or 1 a.m., Brady Brown finds himself happy to be in a family who bought the farm and battled through the tough times to get where they are now.
“As long as I stay calm and manage my time, I know I will give the most that I could and have done the best I can. … God called me to this,” and surely, Brady is ready to go.
Brady Brown, Senior
