Showcase Q&A: Highland’s Goehl discusses working with cows, photography and ag classes
The fourth annual Muddy River Showcase takes place June 21 at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center. The girls game will tip at 2 p.m. with the boys game to follow at 4 p.m. General admission is $10.
LEWISTOWN, Mo. — Having grown up on a farm, Ellie Goehl got a taste of what farm like was like.
Now, she is getting the main course.
Goehl, a Highland graduate, is working full-time for her father, Dan, who owns a cow herd and a vet clinic, this summer before attending Truman State University in the fall to pursue an agriculture education degree.
“I’ve definitely been doing a lot of manual labor this summer,” Goehl said. “I’ve been putting in 40 hours a week, and I’ve been feeding cows and driving big equipment. That’s definitely been a learning curve. I haven’t gotten an opportunity to do that very much because I’ve been so busy with high school, but since I’m graduated now, I get to learn the ways of the farm.”
Some aspects of the job make Goehl a little nervous, but this opportunity is allowing her to use her education to help the farm run more smoothly.
“I love being outside and being around the animals,” Goehl said. “When I drive the big equipment, I get kind of scared sometimes because I really don’t want to break it. Besides the equipment and the working the cows part, I also get to set up some programs for the farm. I’m setting up a tracking program that tracks their health, their location, their genetics, and I’m implementing that into the cow herd. It’s definitely been a fun experience to get to bring my skills from the classroom and implement that into the farm.”
Nothing Goehl has done in the past compares to what she has been tasked with doing this summer, but she is grateful to have the chance to prepare for a future career in agriculture.
“I’ve grown up on the farm, so hit and miss after basketball practice some days, I would go help work cows last summer and the couple summers before,” Goehl said. “My dad always tells stories about when I was like 3 years old and he’d be called out on a cow call, and it’d be so cold because it was the middle of February, and he’d put me in a big jacket and set me next to a buddy heater while he was working the cows. So I’ve always been around agriculture, but definitely more this summer, I’m getting the hands on and getting to see the dirty work and see what it’s actually like to own a big herd.”
Goehl will take a break from the farm to represent Highland on the Missouri girls team in the Muddy River Showcase. Goehl discussed the Showcase, high school, her photography business and more with Muddy River Sports Writer Shane Hulsey in this Showcase Q&A.
Q: What are you looking forward to most about playing in the Muddy River Showcase?
A: Definitely getting to lace up my shoes one last time and getting to play with some of the most talented kids in the area is a very special opportunity. I never thought I would get to play in this game, so I was super excited whenever I got asked.
Q: There are going to be a lot of girls you’ve played against who you are going to be playing with. How different is that going to be compared to playing against them?
A: You see girls from Palmyra, South Shelby and Canton, I mean, we played them multiple times every single year, and obviously I’ve played against them for four years, so I’m really, really excited to get to play with them. It definitely will be a shift. We’re usually so competitive against each other and so serious out there on the court, but it’ll be fun to get to know them a little better.
Q: What career path do you plan on taking?
A: I will definitely be in agricultre. Right now, I’m set on an agriculture education degree, so I’d go be an ag teacher, but I am not sure about the teaching part yet. I just know my heart is with agriculture, so I’ll always be out on the farm or something.
Q: How many cows does your dad have? Do you know?
A: Too many.
Q: Were you nervous going into this knowing that you were going to put in this kind of work and these kinds of hours this summer?
A: It’s definitely fun getting to have I guess what you could call a full-time job for the summer. My dad always says, ‘The cows still have to be fed on the weekends,’ so I’m putting in hours on the weekends, too. I’ve done that a little bit before, but it’s like even if it’s raining or snowing or no matter what the weather conditions are, the cows still have to be fed.
Q: I have a guess on this, but what was your favorite class in high school?
A: My favorite class was definitely an ag class. I actually had a ton of great teachers throughout my high school career, so although I liked ag so much, I had so many wonderful teachers that really just made my whole entire high school experience so good. I took a lot of student council and business classes, a lot of math and language arts, and those were all amazing classes.
Q: Besides the ag classes, what were some other classes or teachers you really liked?
A: One of my favorite teachers, her name is Mrs. Kirkham. She actually taught at Highland when my dad was in school, so she knows everybody’s parents. She likes to tell us embarrassing stories, and her laugh is one of the most contagious laughs I’ve ever heard in my life.
Q: What are some of your hobbies outside of working on the farm or playing sports?
A: I own my own goat herd, and I also own my own photography business. Any sports that I didn’t play in high school, I was taking pictures. I also have been trying to pick up golf. That’s a bit of a learning curve, though. I’m not very good.
Q: What got you into photography?
A: My parents gifted me a camera for my 16th birthday. I have loved nature and just capturing moments of my life, so then I thought, “Oh, I’ll just start this photography business and go from there.” I’ve had so many wonderful people in the community reach out to me and want photos done, so I’ve done everything from couple photos to engagement photos to sports like football and basketball. I went to state with the Highland softball team in the fall when they won the state championship. That was such a surreal experience. It was so much fun to expand my photography business and get to meet so many new people through that.
Q: Isn’t that one of the cool things about photography, that it can take you anywhere?
A: It really can take you anywhere. I also got to take pictures at Canton’s state basketball run. That was just an awesome opportunity to get to go to state softball then turn arond and go to state basketball, too.
Q: What’s your favorite sport to shoot?
A: I don’t get to do basketball often. Basketball is my favorite sport, but I don’t get to shoot it very often because I’ve always been playing. I take pictures of the Truman State football team because my brother plays football there. That has been so fun because the boys get into it and they like getting their pictures taken.
Q: Do you have any loftier goals for that photography business?
A: I actually just got asked to do a wedding this fall, so I’m pretty excited about that. I’m not sure where it will take me, but I definitely want to continue doing it. I do a lot of family and senior pictures within my own community, and now that I’m going to college, I’ll definitely continue that and hopefully become maybe the athletic photographer for Truman because that’s where I’m going to school in the fall. That would be an awesome opportunity to get to capture photos on a higher level.
Q: What drew you to Truamn State maybe besides your brother being there?
A: Well, actually, my brother went up there, and that made me be like, ‘Oh, I do not want to go to Truman State. I’m definitely not going there. There’s no way,’ but my mom was like, ‘Ellie, just apply,’ so then I did. I got in, and I got a really big scholarship. I’m so blessed to get that. Truman started to look a lot more attractive. Their redoing their ag program right now to make it better, so then I thought, ‘It’s a great time to go into ag at Truman State,’ so I’m going to give it a try, and we’ll see how it goes.
Q: Are you nervous? Excited? Both?
A: Well, I had just had orientation. That took a lot of pressure off because I got to schedule my classes, and I got to meet my roommate. I’m excited for the opportunity. I don’t really want to leave home, but I’m going to do it because it will help me grow as a person.
Check out more of the Muddy River Showcase Q&As at the links below:
Payson Seymour’s Blake Schwartz
South Shelby’s Callie McWilliams
West Hancock’s Lewis Siegfried
Quincy Notre Dame’s Alex Dance
Central-Southeastern’s Lauren Miller
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