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Students Learn About Reproduction at Beef Blast

Beef Blast Group

Pictured above:  Members of the Washington County 4-H Club

The Department of Animal Science hosted 4-H members from Washington County on March 23 for a day-long program focused on beef reproduction.    The morning began at the Jeff and Deb Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center. Graduate student Claire Andresen, Erika Lundy, Amy Powell, Dr. Gunn, Dr. Messerschmidt  and Dr. Cassady taught students the importance of the reproduction system and how nutrition can affect the body systems. 

Students saw female reproductive systems, identified parts, practiced an artificial insemination and dissected the organs.  Participants also had the opportunity to see a variety of heifers and make selection on those best for breeding based on visual inspection and evaluation of their expected progeny differences (EDP).  Bulls were also involved for the breeding soundness exam.  

The youth were asked what they learned from the day and here are a couple comments:

“I learned the importance of nutrition when getting your cows ready to breed.”

“The neatest part of the day was learning, seeing and dissecting the male and female anatomy for beef reproduction”

Amy Green, Washington County 4-H/Youth Coordinator was happy with the day and said “This was our second experience taking 4-H’ers on a trip to ISU during the school year for programming and it couldn’t have gone better.  The facilities, the schedule, the lessons were awesome.  The day made their beef projects come to life to see how they as growers have some control behind the science and reproduction of their beef herds.”