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AMES, Iowa – A 20-cow Jersey herd at the Iowa State University Dairy Farm is destined for new management. Students signed up for independent study in the 2021-22 academic year are working toward making all the financial, nutritional, breeding and other decisions for the herd by the time the 2022 fall semester begins. 
The approach is labeled DairyCY – which stands for Dairy Cooperative Year – and reflects ISU’s Cyclone nickname. The students involved are selected from applications.
When fully implemented, DairyCY’s management team will include 14-20 students coordinating and delegating business decisions and hands-on duties. They will do everything from mixing feed and palpating cows to keeping records and paying bills. Most will earn two credits and be involved for at least two semesters. 
What the DairyCY students will not do is milk cows, unless a class member is already among the staff who milks the entire 400-cow ISU herd. But DairyCY will have to pay for their herd’s share of that labor. The Jerseys are housed and managed separately but are milked on the same schedule and by the same crew as the rest of the dairy farm’s herd. 
“The idea is that students can take their intro to dairy science course and their applied classes, and they get all the labs through this experience,” said Dr. Gail Carpenter, who supervises the program. “It’s not just the day-to-day but helping them see those skills in the context of management and also see the whys – how it fits into the bigger picture.”
This semester, Carpenter has 12 students enrolled who have begun setting up procedures and protocols and may begin herd management depending on how fast things progress. Last fall, her students used their independent study to learn more about Jersey genetics and indexes, find and make connections within the industry, and seek options for building the herd inventory. 
The original ISU Jerseys were contributed by Lyon Jerseys of Toledo. Students have been looking for Iowa Jersey breeders to donate bred heifers or offer them at discounted prices in order to help grow the herd. 
While students are getting a chance at hands-on management, DairyCY is also providing a needed focus for the Jersey herd. 
“We’ve just kind of maintained the herd but not bred for anything in particular, and they are not used for research because there are not enough cows,” Carpenter said. “Now we’re actually putting them to good use.”
For Carpenter, who joined the animal science faculty a year ago as an assistant professor of teaching in dairy production, DairyCY represents the progression of a dream. Having taught at a two-year college before working in the dairy industry prior to her role at ISU, she said the program can help fill a need and become a recruiting tool for students both with and without a dairy background.
“I completely value a technical education; it’s incredibly important,” she said. “But a lot of students coming into a four-year university don’t know they want to do dairy until they take Animal Science 101. Then they fall in love with one of the livestock species.” 
Nicole Gudenkauf, a sophomore from Farley, is one of those students; she does not have a dairy background. She spent time at a friend’s dairy farm two years ago. 
“That’s where I fell in love with dairy,” Gudenkauf said. “But I was in FFA and 4-H and always kind of had a love for agriculture.”
She became a dairy science major and joined ISU’s Dairy Science Club. She said she enjoyed networking with people who shared a similar interest. 
“I never thought so many people had that same passion. It’s been very eye-opening,” Gudenkauf said. 
She has signed up for the DairyCY team both semesters this year, hoping to carry it through to next year.
Naturally, the animal science department also draws students from dairy farms, and Carpenter said their hands-on knowledge can vary, making participation in DairyCY valuable to those students as well. 
“Some of them have just done what they have been told on the farm; this will help them critically think about the possibility of the other right ways to do things,” Carpenter said. “They will gain mental elasticity from seeing other angles. And they will benefit from the soft skills of teamwork, leadership and organization, which fit into any career.”
Gudenkauf said she is thankful for what she is learning.
“The vision is awesome – nothing short of fabulous,” she said. “Having students hands-on and taking what we’re learning in class to a real live situation; it doesn’t get much better than that.” 
Carpenter said her role is to give the students control of decisions surrounding the herd but offer guidance when needed.
“I’m the guardrails; I have to keep them from going in the ditch, but I also have to let them fail in small ways in order to learn,” Carpenter said. “We have so much raw talent to pull from. This is going to be a really great fit for the rest of our dairy science curriculum.”

 

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