After finishing the morning milking Ken Harman shovels away a thick layer of manure that built up while cows were waiting for their turn to be milked on the farm where he works and lives in Penacook, New Hampshire. Harman, who has started his own herd on the farm, hopes to own his own dairy farm someday but faces high land and cow prices that make it difficult to undertake such a task.

This photo reflects the dirtier end of the job these farmers do. The cows produce a great deal of manure and it has to be cleaned. I also like the light in this photo, especially the way it reflected off the surface that Harmon had just cleaned. While shooting in a freestall barn on another farm I came very close to taking a tumble with my gear into the kind stuff that Harman is cleaning after I lost my footing on the slick floor.

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