CLOVIS – Twenty aggies recently completed the 2017 US Dairy Education and Training Consortium held in Clovis, NM.

Since the start of the consortium in 2008, 131 aggies have completed this six-week intensive program in large herd management. The program couples class room instruction with actual hands-on experience working with dairy cattle. Students get to pregnancy check, evaluate semen, dissect udders, evaluate body condition scoring, learn to “read” a bunk and more. All of which are important procedures required for today’s modern dairy sector.

“My most favorite memories were meeting the dairy farmers who have a true passion for what they do,” said Callie Jones ’19, one of this year’s attendees. “Going into this program I was intending on going back to the beef production side of the industry and just learning about dairy. However attending the USDETC has influenced my future plans. I would like to one day play a hand in the dairy industry.”

The program was initially started to provide students with an opportunity to learn about modern large herd management. G.H. Cain ’76 was in attendance at the inaugural session and said, “this is the only way that modern herd management is able to be taught. No universities have the facilities that allow students the opportunity to actually see how these modern systems work.”

“I highly recommend this program to anyone who is interested or even who is not interested in dairy. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Jones.

The consortium is open to all university students with 54 completing in this year’s program from nineteen different universities.

The 2018 application is available on the USDETC website: http://usdetc.tamu.edu/.

For more information about the USDETC, contact Dr. Mike Tomaszewski at 979-845-5709 or m-tomaszewski@tamu.edu.

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For more information regarding news from the Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, please contact Maggie Tucker at maggie.tucker@tamu.edu or (979) 845-1542.