The Food Animal Club of the LMU College of Veterinary Medicine was honored with the 2018-19 American Association of Bovine Practitioners student chapter of the year award at the group’s 52nd annual conference in Saint Louis, Missouri.
“We were very honored and grateful to have been recognized and to receive this prestigious award for the very first time,” said Chelsee Beal, a senior veterinary medicine student at LMU-CVM and president of the Food Animal Club during the 2018-2019 academic year. Club activities included:
- Combining interest groups of small ruminants (sheep and goats), bovines and swine to establish the Food Animal Club
- A back-to-school cookout that recruited 100 new club members
- Speakers including state Agriculture Commissioner Dr. Charles Hatcher, then state veterinarian
- Wet labs including hoof trimming, embryo collection, dehorning and processing procedures for cattle
- A two-day artificial insemination (AI) course where 12 members became AI-Certified
- “Palpation Fridays” in which students visited a local dairy to palpate and ultrasound the herd for pregnancy checks.
Because the community helps the club by providing them with hands-on experience, the Food Animal Club takes advantage of any opportunity to give back to the community. This past year they were able to serve two very special farms and families that graciously stepped up and allowed the Food Animal Club, and the entire LMU-CVM, an extraordinary amount of hands-on experience.
The Food Animal Club hosted two “farm cleanup days” to help the Shipley family at Hickory Corner Dairy with tasks they had not had the time or manpower to complete, such as hanging boards, scraping manure/cleaning pens, tidying up the hoof trimming facility, and fixing the palpation rail area.
The Club also lent a hand to Melissa Hubbard of Hubbard Club Lambs during lambing season. Two to three students stayed every night between February and March to perform night checks, help deliver babies, feed bottle babies, and assist on feeding and watering the whole herd.
Other chapter officers for the 2018-19 year were David Alexander, Cora Moyers, Mariah Fischer, Nicholas Shen, Katelyn Jaqueway, Megan Parker, Natalie Richardson, Katharine Jackson and Anthony Holowka. LMU-CVM faculty members Dr. Jerry Roberson and Dr. Philippa Gibbons volunteered their time to serve as the club advisers.
Summer Martin is director of marketing & public relations, LMU Health Sciences.