Well today was our last full day of tours for the 2015 Midwest Ag Tour. Today we only toured the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. I know, a whole day spent at another university seems unnecessary but there was so much to see! We woke up early this morning so we could meet with the feedlot manager of UNL at the campus farm. Nebraska has the largest research beef cattle feedlot facility amongst all universities in the US. Nebraska’s campus farm is over 9,300 acres and holds over 2,500 head of cattle in the feedlot system. This alone was an overwhelming concept to grasp because not only is the University running a very large feedlot operation, but these calves in the feedlot are being studied for various reasons. One of the studies that I thought was worth mentioning was a heat detection trial. They are collecting data from how heat effects the digestive systems in beef cattle. No surprise, they have noticed that cattle do not handle heat well. I don’t blame them, I’m not comfortable in this humidity out here either!
After the feedlot we went to the East campus. Which is what Nebraska calls their department of agriculture. They have a whole campus for strictly Ag courses. An entire campus! The main campus or “City Campus” was a ten min bus ride away from the Ag school. We toured the plant science, animal science and food science buildings. I really enjoyed the animal science building. Inside this one huge animal science building consisted a meat lab, fully equipped with all the coolers, saws and grinders needed to process beef, swine, sheep, and goat carcasses. They also had railing that went from the coolers to the classrooms directly so that students could have visual aids during some of the meat science lectures. The animal science building also had a full size riding arena with an eight horse stall barn attached. Then down the long… long….. hallway they had vet medicine research labs that had cattle, sheep and swine. All in the same building where the animal science classes were taught! Some classes even had room for the animals to be brought into the classroom for a variety of hands on lab practices. So jealous! Overall the animal science facilities were top of the line. Nebraska defiantly knows how to give students a hands on learning environment.
Last on the list was a tour of the tractor testing facility and of course the famous Nebraska football stadium. Both tours where amazing and I am very pleased that we added UNL to our tour list. It was well worth it!
Tomorrow we will be touring Claas combines and Union Pacific. Then we go our separate ways as we fly back home. What an amazing experience this entire trip has been. I am so happy that I enrolled in this class, I’ve seen and learned so much about a wide variety of agricultural practices in the Midwest. This is a trip I will never forget!
A special shoutout to our trip advisor Matt- Thank you so much for all of your hard work organizing such an amazing week! I hope this class will turn into a annual trip because I don’t think anyone can really appreciate everything we have learned over the past week without the full experience of being here in person. Thanks again!
Until we meet again.
