SSCCA Student Featured on MPT’s MD Farm and Harvest

Meet Kelsey Condon, SSCCA 8th grader and Woodstock’s up and coming farm girl! If you happened to see Kelsey’s photo on MPT’s MD Farm and Harvest, you’d only be scratching the surface of her love for all things agriculture. Reminiscing to when Kelsey was just three years old, her mom humorously tells the story of when Kelsey selected her bedroom location in their new family farmhouse just so she could have a view of the horse fields. “This is going to be my room so I can look out my window and see all of my ponies,” three year old Kelsey said. “But Kelsey, you don’t have any ponies…” her mom answered. Replying with her hands squarely on her hips, Kelsey confidently declared “Oh, I will!!”

Kelsey began her involvement with Baltimore County 4H as a second grader, attending monthly meetings where she learned about arts and theatre. When she hit fourth grade, Kelsey began her foray into showing animals and livestock, starting with two baby meat goats purchased from a neighbor. Her experiences of feeding, grooming and walking the goats taught her responsibility and helped her form meaningful friendships within 4H, where one of her goats went on to earn the title of Grand Champion Market Goat at the Baltimore County 4H Fair that first year! Riding on that success, Kelsey continued to raise goats, even while introducing other species into her show barn.  In 6^th grade, she raised two lambs, which involved shearing in addition to all the other daily duties she had mastered. She clearly had a knack for lambing as well, as one of her market lambs went on to win Grand Champion Market Lamb in 2017. Then in sixth grade Kelsey helped to breed and raise her first steer from her family’s cattle herd.

In addition to her yearly animal raising experiences with the 4H County Fair, Kelsey helps to harvest her family’s hay fields each season to feed her animals. She also helps with her family’s Christmas tree farm, A Snowball’s Chance Tree Farm, shearing trees in summer and baling and selling trees to customers in winter. And she now spends her weekends helping on the cash register and with product stocking at her mother’s newest start-up, Farm Chicks Corner Market, in Reisterstown, Maryland. Kelsey’s typical day involves attending SSCCA during the day, followed by feeding, grooming, riding and exercising her animals after school. Her favorite activities include horseback riding and jumping on her Quarter Horse pony, Jager, as well as trail riding through the local state park.