Hello all! It’s been quite some time since we’ve chatted huh?! Whoopsies! Well anyways, time to play some catch up!
Wednesday, September 9th: Second day of touring; first stop Purina Nutrition Research Facility! What a sight to see! Initial thoughts of this tour was a little astray.. I really wasn’t sure what to expect because I was thinking Purina = dog & cat food, but little did I know, I was completely wrong! The staff of Purina greeted us very kindly upon our arrival with refreshments, a conference room just for us, and some party favors! I liked it already! Our main tour guide was Gretchen, a very sweet woman who loved to talk about what they do at the facility and really loved to educate! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take pictures at this facility, but I’ll try to tell you more about each stop!
We went to the horse center, where they have one of the nicest horse treadmills in the nation. The equine facility here was very dedicated to finding out exactly how to help the animals thrive from a nutritional standpoint. I really thought it was interesting that the facility does not ride their horses, only usually uses one breed for testing; quarter horses, and also have about 4 people at one time working with a single horse in the testing facility. The most unique part of the equine department was the murals on the walls, the main one was of a famous racehorse (Secretariat) and with it were descriptions as to how the horses body worked in comparison to a humans, this information showed that a horses heart can beat up to 108 beats per second and that the average horse heart is the size of a volleyball! Interesting huh!
As we toured the dairy facility at Purina we discovered that Land O Lakes is actually partnered with them! Purina companion animal foods are actually partnered with Nestle, and are two completely different facilities. While at the dairy we saw their parlor, which looked much like any other parlor, but also got to talk about the breeding they do there, and all about the process with calf crop and culling. In addition to the dairy facility we also toured one for beef! We saw their way of computer oriented feeding that really seemed to be beneficial in the line of livestock raising. It was amazing to see some of the innovative technology that the facilities had and were so proud to be using. I really think that Purina is a great research facility not only because of how they treat and care for their animals, but more so because 100% of the products and animals are harvested and processed!
Next: University of Missouri…. MIZZOU
Well, I never thought this day would come; the day I second guess my chosen school for college! From first thoughts of Mizzou I knew it had to be pretty cool because I heard there were GLOWING PIGS! YEP! GLOWING! Not only did I hear it, but boy you better believe WE SAW IT! I must inform you why they are glowing though, because our tour guide was very amendment about insuring we all knew the reason behind it, not just because we thought it was incredibly crazy! A researcher at Mizzou actually genetically selected for a gene in pigs that proves to be diabetes, and they wanted to be able to plant that specific gene into an animal to closely monitor the animal much like they would a human; after-all pigs are pretty similar to us! The gene is marked with a tracer (hence the glow in the dark) to insure that the pig received the gene and is a carrier. It was very interesting to learn that even though the genes are distributed in the womb, not every pig receives it, actually sometimes almost none do! I am really pleased with this research because it is really allowing us to see changes with the disease without harming anyone, after-all, it’s just adding an extra gene for studying. *unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the pigs, but I will tell you that the only way to see the pig glow was with a special set of black light goggles, and the areas of the hooves, eyes and snouts were mostly effected and visible*
I really enjoyed the other parts of Mizzou that we toured, like the swine and beef facilities, their on campus ice cream shop (YEP they make it there!) and their rec facility! I’d have to say that University of Missouri is definitely the first school I would transfer to! (I mean who wouldn’t, they had 3 pools!)
So sorry to be updating so late in the game! This trip has been packed with lots of exciting things and places! Stay tuned for more blogging and photos from just another girl in agriculture, as we tour the Midwest and Agriculture throughout it! Thanks for listening!
