Iowa State junior middle Abby Greiman, who literally is an Iowa farm girl, didn’t start playing volleyball until she was 13 and never seriously considered playing in college until her junior year of high school.
Though she enjoyed volleyball, her true passion was cattle.
Her parents, both Iowa State graduates, as a side venture, run a small cow and calf operation in Perry, Iowa, raising Hereford and Angus cattle. So while other girls her age might have been exploring athletic opportunities, Greiman was busy helping with the farm work and showing her cattle at competitions.
“(My parents) wanted all of us — I have an older sister and a younger brother — to grow up in that kind of situation,” Greiman said. “They felt like it was a great way to raise kids, and it teaches you a lot of things … We raise beef cattle, and it was a complete family thing.”
Always inquisitive, the 6-foot-2 Greiman said she often would ply her father with questions as to why things were done a certain way. Why do you feed the animals this? Why are you making these decisions to breed them this way? What are the genetics behind it?
That type of curiosity led Greiman to pursue an animal sciences degree at Iowa State. And this spring, she had the opportunity to take part in one of the school’s travel courses, visiting the United Kingdom to get a first-hand look at the origins of the breeds her family raises: Herefords come from England and Angus from Scotland.
“One day, we visited the oldest Hereford herd in the world — the breed that I grew up showing,” she said. “I believe they are just going on their 200th year in operation: same family who has owned it, same place it has been, same genetic lines of cattle.
“Getting to see it and experience it and also talk to the people who run it and kind of what’s similar about how we (in the U.S.) use the breed versus the way they do it over there, the breeding characteristics they select as opposed to what we do over here.”
She also was able to delve into various aspects of the agriculture industry and some of the global politics and systems behind it.
The tour for the students also included visits to a wool mill, a whisky distillery — which, of course, is connected to the ag industry, Greiman assured — farms and some of the typical tourist things, such as going to London and Cambridge.
“I thought it was a really cool way to experience the…
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