What an awesome day in Columbia, Missouri! Today we had only two stops, but they were absolutely amazing. Our first stop was at Purina Mills Research Farm. I was thoroughly impressed with their facilities on site. We took a tour bus and visited the equine, beef, dairy and companion animal centers. They had a swine unit on cite, but due to the easily transmitted diseases through swine around the nation we could not visit the swine directly. All the facilities were very well presented so that we could really see and understand the quality of work that goes into creating the best nutritional products to different species. My favorite stop was the horse performance barn where they showed us the horse size treadmill that is used to collect data off of the horses as they move through different gates.
The second stop was at University of Missouri. Talk about an Ag school… Their campus farm consists of over 1,800 acres, which includes dairy, swine, equine, beef cattle and different crop productions. My favorite stop was the beef cattle center. They run about 500 head of cattle on the farm and have a fully operating feedlot system that can hold about 600 head of cattle. What was really interesting is that for the past ten years the University of Missouri has been using a no roughage diets. Studies have showed that cattle use too much energy trying to breakdown hay, so by eliminating this the calves are gaining more efficiently and producing 40% less waste. Hard to believe because I have always thought that ruminants require roughage for their digestive system to work. In fact researchers have found that they can work around this so called issue and for last ten years they have seen to significant problems. Mind blowing!
Their feedlot also uses the very fancy data collecting technology “Grow Safe”. These systems are top of the line for collecting data on how all the calves eat and drink individually. They can estimate weight of the calves on daily basis and also detect illness in the calves up to two day early before physical signs of sickness are shown. All together today was a great day! The campus was awesome and their Ag facilities were phenomenal! I knew we were touring the farming capital of the world, but actually being here and seeing it all in person was a true honor. I can’t wait to see more throughout the trip!
Until we meet again.
