And we're off!


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A Senior's Farewell to the University of Minnesota

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Completing the Shires, Shorthorns, and Sheep: Exploring Livestock Production Systems in England marked the end of my undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota. Leaving for England two short days after my college graduation seemed to be a little daunting, but there's no doubt in my mind that it was worth it and a GREAT way to end my collegiate career!

The highlights of my trip to England included visiting farms, such as Wimpole and Native Beef, to see how they are working to preserve the genetics of England's heritage breeds, seeing the racing industry in Newmarket, and experiencing several markets in London. Growing up in production agriculture has given me personal experiences with raising beef, sheep and crops, such as corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. I enjoyed observing the similarities and differences between agriculture in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Heritage breed preservation seemed to be important to several of the farms we visited, and I didn'…
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Royal Veterinary College

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Today we had a very adventurous day at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in London. We specifically visited and toured the Hawkshead Campus in Hertfordshire. We were provided tours by student ambassadors who answered any questions we had! This campus was more rural but very beautiful. During the tour we even got to attempt at a stimulated cow rectal palpation.


Continuing, we got a tour of the veterinary hospital where students help the veterinarians while also learning about the profession. This clinic sees 15,000 animals a year which compared to the U of M Veterinary Medical Center is a bit less as they see 40,000 animals. The RVC has 1,800 students and is the largest vet college in England while the U of M has 416 students. Another difference is the class sizes as they do a lot more of 'teamwork' based classes earlier on than we do at the U of M.

One very unique opportunity that the RVC has is a 5 year program that you begin right after high school to become a veterinarian…
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Life Is Better At The Races!

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On day 4 of our trip (May 17th)  in Cambridge, we visited National Stud and had a night at the race track to bet on the beautiful thoroughbreds in Newmarket. Our day started at the Warren Hill or the heath, this is where we got to see the grooms/exercise riders galloping their horses in front of the trainers. They do this at 6 am to get the exercising done early rather than later to stay out of the afternoon heat. All horses must be off the heath by 1 pm and then it is open to the public. 
















National stud was our next stop and we first visited the foaling unit. Here the "heavy", which means pregnant, mares are put in a paddock and checked as often as possible. Once the mare shows signs of foaling they are moved into their individual stables to wait for the arrival of their baby. Mare and foal are then moved to their designated paddocks where they are accompanied by several other mare and foal pairs until they are at an even number or up to a large group of 8.

Onto the stud wo…
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