Course Provides Real "Hands-IN" Experience

By Carol Flaherty

03/26/00 BOZEMAN, Mont. - No matter what the course description said, this spring elective at Montana State University was not a "hands-on" class.

"Hands-IN" comes a lot closer to describing what MSU College of Agriculture students did this spring, at least if you go by their descriptions.

"After you've been elbow deep in a cow at 4 a.m., nothing really scares you," Missy Merrill of Ennis said of her calving experience. The MSU junior added, "Until you get in there and feel around, you don't know what you're talking about."

Monica Mantell, an MSU senior from Jefferson City said, "Up to my elbows in cow wasn't the hardest part, because I knew I needed to do that. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. But when you're trying to make sure all of the calves are okay and then you see one die, it breaks your heart."

Both worked on the Dean and Trudy Peterson ranch near Judith Gap as part of an MSU Animal and Range Sciences special topics class.

Missy Merrill & Kali Rasselson weigh a newborn calf.

Several other ranches and organizations cooperated with MSU to give College of Agriculture students not only the hands-in experience of calving, but also experience of collecting data for a breeding research study. The cooperators in addition to the Dean Peterson Ranch included the Jim Peterson ranch three miles north of Buffalo, the Bair Ranch run by Jim and Deb Murphy 35 miles east of White Sulphur Springs, the Krutzfeldt Ranch about 40 miles southeast of Miles City run by Bret Lesh, the Northern Agricultural Research Center and the American Simmental Association headquartered in Bozeman.

In addition, students had the benefit of a lecture by Bob Bellows, a USDA animal scientist at Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Station near Miles City who has studied calving difficulties extensively. He came to Bozeman and described to students what they might face once they began calving.

Jerry Lipsey, CEO of the American Simmental Association, and Marty Ropp, ASA director of commercial programs, wanted a direct comparison of Simmental, Angus and Red Angus bulls. In talking with researchers in MSU's Animal and Range Sciences Department, they came up with the idea of a research program that would give students calving experience and experience collecting research data.

Ray Ansotegui of MSU's Department of Animal and Range Sciences helped his graduate student Harv VanWagoner design a master's degree study that would compare the calving ease of Simmental, Angus and Red Angus sires. Animal and Range Sciences developed a special course, and 28 students signed up, nearly evenly split between men and women.

Harv VanWagoner

American Simmental Association also provided financial support to MSU's teaching program in return for the students' help.

The American Simmental Association will continue the study beyond calving, tracking the calves from conception through the packing house to determine carcass characteristics and value-building sire traits.

The research this spring involved about 900 calves at six sites, and student calving teams helped at four of those sites.

VanWagoner, who will analyze the data as part of his master's thesis, said results should be available in the fall of 2000.

But the results for the students are already available.

Coordinating the undergraduate students in the class was a "learning experience," said VanWagoner, who came to MSU from Utah, after talking with Ansotegui at a regional student competition in Bozeman.

"I had students with absolutely no experience, and students who had more experience than I did. I have to compliment the experienced students for having the patience to put up with me and help teach the students who had less experience," said VanWagoner.

Harv VanWagoner and
Kali Rasselson pull a calf.

Van Wagner's consideration and organization were praised by all of the cooperators.

"Harv took care of it all," said Deb Murphy. "If we had a C-section in the middle of the night and the kids hadn't experienced that, he woke them up. When the kids left, the bunkhouse was spic and span . . . . through four sets of students over 20 days, he was there to describe how to get here, where the keys were, how to work the system."

Taking a heart girth measurement.

Over the course of several days of delivering calves, the students helped with multiple deliveries, learned to determine when a heifer needed help in delivery and when to call the veterinarian, how to weigh, tattoo, treating the calf's navel, put on an ear tag and measure the circumference of the hoof and the chest at the position of the heart.

Michelle Peterson is a senior from Wolf Creek who worked on the Dean and Trudy Peterson ranch. She is not related to them.

"It was phenomenal the records they kept and how intense it was," said Michelle Peterson. "They ran all the mother cows through the chute and shaved the hair away from the brand to be sure (which cow they had). We learn in college records, records, records, but the Petersons were very smart and had all the records."

Mike VanAuken, a junior from Fairfield, worked at two different ranches during the program. He said he was interested in the research project, but "also wanted to see for myself what was going to happen."

VanAuken said the calf sizes at the two ranches he went to surprised him.

"The calving was easier at the Krutzfeldt Ranch when I was there, but that might change by the time all the data is in . . . "For people like me with experience, it is fun to calve," said VanAuken. "And then, going out and working on other people's operations is good experience. You see their feeding techniques and how they run their cattle. It's a really good class."

David Sattoriva, an MSU junior from Laurel, said he helped calve about 110 heifers at the Bair Ranch and about 35 or 40 head at the Krutzfeldt Ranch.

"You have to work harder on your classes when you get back, because you miss so much," said Sattoriva.

Lance Barney, an MSU junior from Sheridan, said he signed up "to see some different techniques and different facilities."

Brock Hough, an MSU junior from Kansas, worked at the Bair Ranch.

"It was a research project worth doing," said Hough. "The blizzard in Miles City knocked out our electricity. That was interesting. It made one day very busy."

Wade Whiteman, an MSU senior from Richey, participated in the calving at two different ranches.

"Our ranch at home has about 200 cows, and I had experience with them, but I never calved that many heifers at once." His home ranch doesn't use artificial insemination, but he said since the project he's been thinking about how it would shorten the calving season and probably give them better quality bulls.

Mantell said that the calving experience has let her "understand a lot more about what people are talking about" in her classes.

"There's a lot more I relate to now," said Mantell.

Such hands-in classes probably will continue, said Ansotegui. In addition to a calving class, his department is trying to arrange a class incorporating artificial insemination.

Send questions or comments to Ray Ansotegui and Carol Flaherty, MSU Communications Services, Bozeman, MT 59717: carolf@montana.edu.

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