Just over 5 miles from where folklore has long claimed Vikings scribbled Scandinavian etchings on a runestone, Erica Sawatzke surveys thousands of chirping baby birds in her long barn.
Automatic feed and water lines hum. A monitoring system – hooked up to a landline – alerts Sawatzke’s phone when barn temperatures, normally kept above 90 degrees, drop precipitously.
But there’s one thing missing in these barns that could bring them into the 21st century: high-speed internet.
Sawatzke, a sixth-generation farmer, can’t adjust the temperature with a tap of her phone. She doesn’t have cameras to livestream the turkeys – which could be a game-changer as the industry fights bird flu.
And for the mother of two who runs between school, the post office and statewide meetings as the president for the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, that internet connection could afford her something equally rare – peace of mind.
If her barns had high-speed internet, she might not feel so tethered to the farm.
Source: blandinonbroadband.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-shotbydave
Categories: Minnesota, General