The students fit and show a string of dairy cattle at the local county fair. The Summer Experience in Farm Management introduces students to the modern farm as a business, which has as its objective the conversion of plants into milk and meat. The emphasis of the Summer Experience in Equine Management program is the management of a commercial equine facility and improved horse handling and training skills. Students will learn ground training techniques including lungeing, longlining, ground driving and halter breaking. Students become proficient at stallion handling, semen collection and processing as well as broodmare management.
Weekly meetings update the students about farm activities including equine, dairy and crops.
Extended sessions on relevant topics such as nutrition, reproduction, health and field crops will be held throughout the summer. At the end of the summer oral and written reports are presented. In past years, equine related research projects have dealt with techniques to improve the preservation of stallion semen, evaluation of products that prevent horses from chewing wood, and development of educational tools. Farm Management related research projects have dealt with dairy replacement housing, forage quality and mycotoxins in silages, dairy records analysis, reproductive physiology, and manure additives for odor control. Students interested in careers in veterinary medicine, farm management, stable or breeding management, and agricultural extension have found these programs to be particularly helpful.