Goals and Objectives

• to provide quality instruction to students in basic animal science and applied principles of dairy production and management
• to help students develop skills for discovering, evaluating, and adapting scientific information and technology throughout their careers
• to enhance students’ abilities to communicate effectively
• to engage students in the application of scientific principles to problem-solving in a real-world setting.

Program

The following core courses are required in the major:
DASC 120 Orientation to Dairy Science
ANSC 231 Principles of Nutrition
ANSC 232 Applied Feeds and Feeding
ANSC 257 Genetics
ANSC 260 Animal Physiology
DASC 306 Dairy Production
ANSC 345 Animal Health
ANSC 346 Principles of Animal Breeding
DASC 404 Lactation and Milk Quality
DASC 406 Advanced Dairy Management
ANSC 433 Advanced Nutrition or DASC 436 Dairy Cattle Nutrition
ANSC 448 Physiology of Reproduction
DASC 485 Seminar in Dairy Science

Faculty

The Animal and Food Science Department offers a major in Dairy Science as well as an Animal Science major (emphasis in equine, meat animal or veterinary technology). Our faculty and staff consists of 14 full-time members, allowing more experts to teach within their discipline. In addition, our faculty possess a broad base of experience with all farm animal species. Two of the current faculty members have won the campus-wide "Distinguished Teacher of the Year" award.

Facilities

CAFES maintains two laboratory teaching farms. Both the Mann Valley Farm and the Campus Farm are heavily utilized for course work by the Animal Science faculty. These farms include dairy, beef, swine, sheep, poultry and equine enterprises. In addition, the Department operates an on-campus dairy manufacturing plant and a fully-equipped meat processing facility.

Career Opportunities

• Dairy herd manager/owner
• Nutrition consultant/representative
• Dairy cattle classifier
• Sire analyst and mating specialist
• Dairy records association manager
• Breed association representative
• Milk plant field representative
• Milk inspector
• Milking equipment representative
• Pharmaceutical sales
• Public relations specialist
• Research assistant
• Extension youth specialist
• Agricultural extension agent
• Agricultural journalist
• Agricultural loan officer or financial consultant

Most of these positions offer significant and early opportunity for advancement. The demand for personnel is consistently high in all the above areas. In addition the Dairy Science-Science Option prepares students for entry into either graduate school or veterinary college. Attainment of these advanced degrees offers numerous opportunities for rewarding careers such as university teaching, public or private research and development, private veterinary practice, and federal or state veterinary practice.