The Chattel Farmer

Ch 4 The Interview

The video feed opened and the man looking back at me had skin that you don’t really see around here. It was tanned and seemed almost rough. His salt and pepper hair and beard were neatly trimmed and his eyes were sharp. Felt like he was looking right through me. His shirt was similar to mine but his short sleeves were tight on his muscled arms. Something about his face seemed familiar. I clicked the button to screen capture an image of his face. The silence was broken by him. “Good! You’re on time!” I responded “Yes, sir. I really appreciate being considered for the summer internship. I’m not sure what to call you, since the interviewer’s name wasn’t listed.” A quiet chuckle, “I’m George Farber. I’m the owner and operator of Farber Chattel Dairy. Why don’t you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about your program. I haven’t had an intern from that school yet.” My mother’s last name is Farber! “I’m Aaron Greene. I’ve finished two years of my Agriculture Business and Marketing program, which has been mostly general education classes. Over the next two years, I’m scheduled to take more specialized classes. I’ve narrowed down what I think I’d like to specialize in but I’m hoping the experience at Farber Chattel Dairy this summer will show where my true interests lay.” There were some more general questions like that for a few minutes then this question which seemed different. “Have you ever had a pet or taken care of animals?” “Well, Mr. Farber I’ve always wanted a dog but we’ve never lived in an apartment that allowed that sort of live animal. So I volunteered at a dog rescue all 4 years of high school. I’d still like a dog someday.” A small smile creased his cheeks. “OK, last two questions: do you like to have your work on a schedule or just go with the flow? And tell me what chores you do around your home?” Oh, those are strange and I’m not sure what he wants. “Well, in my free time I prefer to go with the flow especially when I’m designing farms or towns in my video game. But with school work I have it blocked out in my schedule that I do certain things every day unless there’s a big project that needs extra work. Compared to all my friends I’m responsible for way more things around here than they are!” I go on to list all the ways that my mom expects me to help out.

“Well, Mr. Greene based on your test scores and your interview today I think you are my top choice. Would you be able to start next week, if the handbook doesn’t scare you off?” I immediately jump in that I could start next week with my arrival depending on the train schedule. “Good. I’ll email you the handbook. Please study it and if you think that you can’t handle taking care of the chattel as shown in the handbook email me no later than tomorrow evening. I’ll also include the mag train station I can pick you up from, with suggested best times for me, and a list of items you need to bring so that you can do your job well. I look forward to hearing from you. Goodbye.” With that Mr. Farber ended the call. I sat there and blinked a few times. Then I messaged my mom the good news!

My email pinged and I eagerly pulled open the attachment “Beginning Chattel Handbook”.

Each Chattel Farm will have their own procedures and routines however this handbook covers basic responsibilities expected from a Chattel keeper. Your responsibilities will fall under the general categories of feeding, barn/equipment cleaning, herd movement, grooming and milking. Detailed instructions for common techniques are listed under each section in this handbook.

HA! I was right! It’s a special milk from an animal. Other than milking, I did all that sort of thing while volunteering at the dog rescue. Based on how thick this handbook is, I’ll be pretty busy. There isn’t anything surprising under the “feeding” section. The pictures of various food dishes and some sort of upside down water bottle looking thing talk about how to clean and fill each. Brief descriptions of various types of feed from pellets to fresh fruit. In the section on common feeding schedules, there is a bolded statement about scanning the ear tag and entering the feed for each chattel. The example pictures of tags showed QR codes. The common schedules all listed three meals and various snacks. That’s a bit different from the dog rescue where they all got the same food twice a day unless a dog was sick or recovering from abuse.

The section on cleaning was pretty boring. Basically using water pressure hoses to flush dirt into drains, sanitizing with steam or chemical sprays, sanitizing milking equipment by properly loading the parts into trays that then get loaded into a cleaning machine. There wasn’t much under “Herd Movement”. Basically the chattel are used to their routine so usually it’s just opening and shutting gates. There were some example pictures of common types of areas I might see on an average farm such as outdoor pasture, stalls, milking room, breeding area, and something called an indoor pasture. The indoor pasture is used during bad weather and it looks like a large empty room with some feeding dishes and water bottles mounted on the walls. The floor is covered by rubber mats just like the stalls and most of the indoor areas show in the example pictures. The last page showed how to attach a lead line to what looked like a nose ring in the drawing and emphasized that a gentle tug would be all that was needed. I guess they don’t use collars like on dogs.

The grooming section recommended wiping the chattel’s face at least once a day. Other needed grooming techniques listed nail trimming with a picture of the clipper, hair trimming with a couple types of trimmers shown, and teeth cleaning with a small brush. Some farms bring in experts to handle these jobs a few times a year. There were a few types of full body cleaning set ups shown that looked pretty similar to what I’d seen at the dog rescue. A sort of shallow tub and a short shower stall with shower head.

The final section was “milking” and it didn’t have any pictures, just some drawings with the descriptions. I was disappointed because I still didn’t know if those pictures of women with breasts down past their elbows were what chattel look like or some kind of joke. The process looked a little complicated but I’m a quick learner so I’m guessing I’ll pick it up quickly. Again, the ear tag needed scanned before beginning. Seems like the tag needed logged before doing anything! Start with a quick cleaning of the n****e area, then do a quick stimulation of the n****e while checking for n****e damage such as cracks or blisters. There were a couple close ups images of damage that looked really painful. Then connecting the pump with fresh shields for every chattel. The tricky part looked like making sure the correct size shield was used and that the shield was put on the correct angle. When the machine beeps that the chattel is finished milking, disconnect the pump by breaking the seal by wedging a finger inside the shield, disconnect the used shields and put them in the bucket to be sanitized.

I’d finished reading the handbook. Nothing looked hard but there did seem to be a lot of work which would be the opposite of the lazy summer I’d been longing for just a few weeks ago. I did some quick searches on salary and job prospects in the Chattel industry. Holy Moly! The numbers were a lot higher than the other jobs I had been looking at with my degree, and those were some comfortable income jobs. This is a great opportunity! I opened the email from Mr. Farber so I could let him know that I wanted the job and noticed the other attachment called “packing list”. Skimming through the list it looked pretty normal, basically anything you’d want if you were staying in a hotel for a few weeks but then I saw that condoms were on the list. That’s odd. I’ve had the male birth control implant for a couple of years so I don’t think I’ll need those but I’ll order a box just so I have everything on the list with me. After clicking send on the email accepting the position, waves of excitement and dread washed over me.