book
Breederman
by Murray Anderson :: Morris Publishing :: Reviewed by Pat Caraher
Author Murray Anderson ('50 Dairy Husbandry) weaves his experiences as a herdsman, milk tester, milking machine salesman, artificial inseminator, and fieldsman into a novel that describes the struggle for survival of small farmers in northwest Washington.
In Breederman, Anderson takes readers back to the '50s and '60s, when every farm was a family farm, and farmers knew how many cows their neighbors had and how many pounds of milk they shipped.
The book grew out of a series of vignettes Anderson wrote about his experiences as an artificial inseminator.
"One of my goals was to capture the struggles of families to remain on the farm and why they wanted to remain close to animals and the soil," says Anderson. Now retired on Whidbey Island, Anderson lived in Skagit County during the period the novel covers. From 1982 to 1989, he was executive director of Palouse Industries, a nonprofit agency in Pullman that provides services to persons with developmental disabilities.
The author acknowledges his debt to the dairy farmers and their families who welcomed him onto their farms and into their homes. "I hope this book will repay their hospitality and will help non-farmers understand and appreciate these great citizens of the land," he says.