It's been quite a while.

The semester is coming to an end and it has been my busiest yet. I finally finished my research project after overcoming some difficulties. I found through this detail oriented task how mistakes can be made to jeopardize your research, but also how to overcome those mistakes and continue on. Our forage samples were all sent to the lab for analysis at the same time. When we received the data back from the lab, we noticed that they failed to analyze one of the main things we were calculating: dry matter. That completely threw off that part of our research. The samples were disposed of and we were unable to account for the three months of collections we did over the summer months. I did, however, continue on with my forage cover research and found that we had extensive differences in weed and brush cover, despite the drought we suffered from this summer. Yay, us!

Enough of that for now, though. I'm edging closer and closer to starting the vet school application process. I will be applying this coming fall and have been trying to compile all my experience. I have to log about 200 more hours, but I'm getting there. I will be shadowing a veterinarian here soon which should help me build up some hours. My GPA is good to go and I'm hoping my GRE scores are the same. Perhaps I will start using this blog to log my experiences. Dr. Mills told me to keep a strong record so I know exactly what I did and how I went about accomplishing it.

So why not start now:

Small Animal

Venipuncture:

• Draw blood from the cephalic vein in dogs in order to perform heartworm tests using Abaxis VetScan Canine Heartworm Rapid Test

Animal Handling:

• Animals of all sizes (cats,dogs, cattle, equine, etc.)
• Restraining companion animals in a clinic environment

Other:

• Palpation of prostate gland

Total hours: ~50 hrs

Large Animal


Reproduction:

• Implantation of Eazi-Breed™ CIDR® for estrus sycronization
• Rectal palpation (open, 30 day pregnancy, 60 day pregnancy, and 90 day pregnancy)
• Artificial insemination of Belted Galloway cattle on farm and at the Nashville Zoo
• Knowledge of maintaining an efficient breeding program
• Research on herd Estimated Progeny Differences 

Animal Handling:

• Restraining cattle in order to draw blood from the jugular vein
• Knowledgeable about how to use cattle restraint systems
• Knowledge of restraining and halter breaking cattle.

Venipuncture:

• Collect blood samples from cattle via caudal and jugular veins in order to test for anaplasmosis.

Total hours: ~75 hrs

The Research Project Continues...

This summer started off busy and the work just seems to be piling up. I am now balancing my research project, summer classes, riding lessons, and work among other things life throws at me. Our research is going rather smoothly. We were able to weigh two month's worth of samples this past week thanks to our brand new super-awesome-grass-weighing-machine, or just calling it a scale works. I went out to the farm on Tuesday of this week to take my second round of pictures and I am currently finishing up with last month's batch. I guess it would help to show what I am actually doing. So here goes: 

See this picture? Yes...this is my project. My baby. We have a love hate relationship. What I am currently doing is identifying what the little red arrows touch. I'm making note of whether the forage is a grass, legume, weed, or woody species. I am also taking note of bare spots and manure. The point of this part of our research is to identify the most predominate forages in our pastures. With this information and the data we receive back on our samples, we can calculate how long our cows can graze on a certain pasture before moving them to the next. Exciting, huh? I'm a super nerd, so I enjoy it...but take 285 slides - 16 pasture identification slides x 25 arrows = 6,725 little boxes and a lot of Tylenol. MULTIPLIED by the number of times we will be performing this...which is about 5? I think? Lots and lots of data and lots and lots of information to present at the Undergraduate Research forum in the fall. 

Oh research project, I love you...but you are rather tedious. 

2012 Joint Annual Meeting

The 2012 Joint Animal Meeting is just around the corner. This year it's in beautiful Pheonix, AZ and some fantastic news: registration is free for students who are members of the American Society of Animal Science (which is also free to join for students). There are a ton of amazing ticketed events like a course in genomic selection in livestock, a reproduction symposium, and food...lots of food. I will be trying to make an appearance this year and highly encourage anyone else interested to take advantage of this awesome opportunity! Not only will you learn a lot, but there will be lots of opportunities for networking with some of the major universities. More information can be found here.

Also, if you aren't a member already, please join the American Society of Animal Science. Upon registration, students will gain free access to the Journal of Animal Science which you will use. I have numerous times in the year I've been a member. You can register here.

Have a wonderful week, fellow animal agriculture enthusiasts!

Summer Research: Day 1

Good evening, Interwebz and happy Derby Day, Cinco de Mayo, and Comic Book Day. More important than all these lovely events: the first day or our summer research at the APSU Farm. Dr. Mills, Chad, and I trekked through 16 of our 17 pastures, collecting samples for analysis and taking pictures. The picture taking was done by yours truly. Every 20 feet or so at a diagonal, pictures were taken of our forages. We will be placing a grid over each of the pictures in order to identify different species of grasses, legumes, weeds, and woody species. This is to get an idea of what our ground cover consists of. This should keep me busy all summer. Looking forward to it! Everything went smoothly after the morning rain subsided, and we accomplished a lot. Next time I will remember to take an allergy pill before hand. I've included a few pictures of our journey. Enjoy and stay tuned for more fun!

 

Our Funtastic Wild Type Random Forage Selector. Chad threw it like a champ. What else do you expect from the third grade Frisbee throwing grand champion?

 

Our first sample collection. Molly was super curious and decided to photo-bomb the picture. I forgive her. She's adorable. 

 

 I can't NOT throw in a picture of our cows. I have a plethora of cattle pictures from today.

 

Oh, it's me. This is rare. Dr. Mills made me get a picture of me taking pictures to prove my existence. 

Summer Research. Get excited!

Good morning, fellow animal lovers! I am pleased to announce that my research will begin bright and early tomorrow morning. This summer we will be accessing forage quality with the ultimate goal of switching to a grass-fed system for the beef cattle herd at the Austin Peay Environmental Education Center aka "The Farm". With the current trends in population growth, it is anticipated that the human population will increase to more than 9 billion by 2050. That means we have to increase meat production by nearly 75% with fewer resources available! More meat production with less land? Huh? How do we accomplish this? Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency! We need to be more efficient in production without over-exploiting our natural resources. This is where our research will be put to use. Our goal is to gain an understanding of our forage availability in order to properly manage our pastures. Forage management is vital to profitability as it is the lowest cost feedstuffs available. Oh, and not to mention that it is less laborious than feeding hay everyday!

We will also be analyzing the productivity of our beef cattle herd in order to identify our most efficient cows for future breeding. Perhaps my EPD charts I did for Dr. Mills will be of use! I am extremely excited about this wonderful opportunity and I will be documenting my adventure here, so be sure to stay tuned!

Picture courtesy of Erin at Keeping it Real: Through the Lens of a Farm Girl

Through the Lens of a Farm Girl

Erin over at Keeping it Real: Through the Lens of a Farm Girl brings a whole new light to agriculture education. I've become addicted to her beautiful ag related photographs that provide inspirational quotes as well as educational tidbits pertaining to current topics in agriculture. Be sure to check out her Facebook page!

Introducing: Me!

Hello, Internet! I am slightly new to this blog thing, but I figured now was the best time to start documenting my journey. This journey that I speak of is an intense, exciting, and fun-filled adventure! I am a pre-veterinary student with an extreme, and somewhat obsessive, affinity for animals; more specifically, this love is for larger animals *cough* cows *cough*. My goal in life is to become a large animal veterinarian in the lovely state of Tennessee, where I just recently rooted myself. My interests, however, don't just lie in animal health. I am fascinated by every aspect of animal agriculture. Genetics, reproductive management, endocrinology, and nutrition are some of my interests (just to name a few) and I plan on utilizing this blog as an all inclusive information portal and a personal research blog. Yes, I will be documenting my research and activities on this lovely little internet journal as well as posting articles relating to current topics in the animal agriculture industry. My first research project (providing I receive my research grant) will involve analysis of our available forages, but I will get to that later. For now, I just wanted to provide a short introduction to what this blog will entail. I hope many of you will follow me through my journey. I love sharing acquired knowledge and would love to learn from you, as well.