Photo courtesy Pig Monkey / Flickr
For the last year , I ’ve had the pleasure to work with veterinary surgeon Dr. Lyle McNeal on the “ Livestock Q&A ” column in each issue ofHobby Farms . Although I ’ve never meet him in person , I feel like I know him through our regular email correspondence , which always leaves me with an uplifted spirit .
Dr. McNeal is a magisterial animal science prof at Utah State University . He is a very busy man , and I suspect his attention is part in a hundred ways on any return day . In accession to teaching some of the largest enrolment path within the College of Agriculture , he serves as the Animal Science Program faculty coordinator , Honors adviser , Internship and Cooperative Extension supervisor , advisor to the USU Sheep Club , and donnish adviser to more than 125 animal skill majors and minors .
At age 72 , Dr. McNeal has an impressive professional history and yet somehow managed to grow a remarkable phratry , too , with nine grown children — four boys and four fille — and 15 grandchild ! Yet with all his commitments , he still makes time for us atHobby Farmsby reading our livestock query and answers for accuracy and redact them to offer up the best practical advice for hobby sodbuster . In fact , this twelvemonth mark 10 years of his worthful contribution to our issue .
As a farm animal and range specialist , having held many leadership office with the former National Wool Growers Association and the American Sheep Industry Association , Dr. McNeal is obviously very knowledgeable and gifted in his guardianship of brute . But he also has a fantastic talent for connect with the human spirit . In our brief email encounters , he has a elbow room of erase the reckoner screens between us , form our electronic correspondence more than an exchange of byplay nicety , but a genuine conversation about , well , life ! We ’ve traded bits and piece of our personal lives and even a few crime syndicate photos — that ’s how we con that my new daughter and his newest granddaughter share the same name !
Through each e-mail , I ’ve discovered something new — and whole interesting — about Dr. McNeal . He was a caretaker of more than 320 broodmares at Ellsworth Farms , a Thoroughbred raising farm in Chino , Calif. He was a military cowcatcher for the U.S. Air Force . He makes trips to the Navajo Indian Reservation to attend in veterinary care of their sheep and goats . In fact , his pioneering employment in genetic conservation of domestic creature with theNavajo - Churro sheep , and outreach didactics in the Navajo Nation has brought internal and international recognition .
At the bottom of Dr. McNeal ’s email signature is a simple and intimate command in acknowledgment marks : “ Your attitude determines your elevation . ” late , I asked him , what the credit means to him . He said his long - meter usage of this quote take up with his days as a military pilot and as a cobalt - pilot for USU ’s Continuing Education Division , when he fly a group of professors to distant areas of the province of Utah to allow university - stratum animal scientific discipline classes — something he did a span of night a calendar week in improver to his daytime class — for 13 twelvemonth ! I ’m certain the arduous agenda would have tax an average soul in a short prison term , but Dr. McNeal ’s mental attitude — and his employment ethic — isn’t average .
What really drew him to this particular mantra though , was growing up in what he describes as “ not a well - to - do ” family , in which he said he had to become ego sufficient by geezerhood 11 and had to work to give for everything he needed or wanted . He put himself through schoolhouse without any loanword or credit card debt — a B.S. from Cal Poly , an M.S. from University of Nevada , Reno ; and a Ph.D. from USU — a feat unheard of in today ’s worldly concern .
“ My feeling was what you accomplish in this life , has to start with one ’s attitude ; and if you do n’t have an posture of personal opening move , you will not gain any EL of becoming a good person , individually , and professionally , ” he explained to me . “ Thus , success , of any one , begin inside one ’s smell , drive and most significantly one ’s attitude ! ”
know all that is on his shell each sidereal day , all that he has accomplished — the leaning of his award and laurels is long — and all that he give way back to his students , family , the Navajo , animals andHobby Farmson a regular basis , inspire me to take a look at my own mental attitude about work and life . How does my attitude reflect how I live and who I jazz and what ALT I can hit ? Dr. McNeal ’s EL certainly shine his can - do attitude and his love for nature , animals and man at turgid . And good posture like his are infective . They shine through in every picayune matter a mortal does … even in emails across the mile .
Get more Farm Inspiration Friday from HobbyFarms.com :
« More Farm Inspiration »
