A Newsletter Once Again
A Merry Christmas to all our friends and alumni wherever
you are at this holiday time. We
all hope that you have a great holiday season.
It is thirteen years this month since the last issue of our
departmental newsletter, which was edited by Dick Gerry even after his formal
retirement. Dick is not doing very
well in the Orono nursing home and we all certainly wish him a great holiday
season.
If you have not been to the UM campus for a few years you
will notice when you do come to visit us that a lot of physical changes have
occurred in the last ten years. Biggest
of all probably is that we are now “The University of Maine”, no more UMO.
We are the flagship campus, hence the logo and the banners around campus.
At the departmental level we have returned to being Animal and Veterinary
Sciences after using 3 other names since the 1980’s including: Animal,
Veterinary and Aquatic Sciences (AVA), BioSystems Science and Engineering (BSE,
hence the UMADCOWS), and lastly Animal and Horticultural Sciences.
These name changes were often associated with the addition of different
faculty, but these changes unfortunately also often involved budget cuts or
budget redistributions. Many faculty retired and were never replaced, consequently we
are one of the smallest departments in the college in faculty numbers but this
year we have one of our highest enrollments ever (120 students).
Clearly we are doing something right.
The Witter Research Center is no longer under departmental
management; like all the other University Farms it is managed directly by the
Experiment Station. Its name and focus have also changed.
From being primarily a research resource, it is now used extensively for
teaching, so it is now the Witter Teaching and Research Center.
In 1996, the Witter Center was closed for financial reasons and all the
animals were sold. The funds
generated by selling the animals contributed significantly to the repairing and
remodeling of the facilities and a conscious decision was made by the faculty
and administration to reduce the size of the dairy herd and diversify into other
species, including horses. This has
allowed us to develop an Equine Minor, to teach classes in equine management,
reproduction, breeding management, and some aspects of equitation, to make
strong ties with the horse industry, to have students perform an internship with
an equine professional, to perform equine research, and to have students retrain
our standardbred horses to be pleasure horses.
The university’s horses are all donations, primarily retired
standard-bred harness racers, which are then used for reproduction research
while they are retrained by students to become pleasure horses.
If you would like a horse for Christmas we have several available for
sale.
Students can also bring their horse to school with them and
rent one of the boarding stalls at Witter.
This is run as a cooperative where everyone helps look after everyone’s
horses, including the university’s horses.
Trails are available around Witter and student clubs participate in local
and regional competitions.
We have also modified our curriculum to make it more
hands-on with Dairy Cattle Technology now being a five credit senior level class
where everyone is involved in the day-to-day management of the farm and in the
decision-making. These classes give
our graduates experience working in real-life situations where they have
individual and group responsibilities that help prepare them to be successful
contributors to the state’s economy in whatever type of position they take
after graduation. Our students have
also been more successful in gaining admission to veterinary colleges and other
graduate programs since we initiated these changes. We currently have alumni enrolled in the veterinary college
in Prince Edward Island (three), at
the University of Pennsylvania (two), at Iowa State, Tufts, Illinois, and
Missouri. We believe that our
increased enrollment and the greater success of our graduates are because of
these positive changes in our programs.
We have also benefited from the University’s association
with Coca Cola which donates several million dollars each year to the
University. This money has been
used in several ways but the most obvious is in making high tech classrooms in
many buildings around campus. The
Rogers Hall classroom was one of the first to be refitted with white boards, a
big screen, an LCD projector suspended from the ceiling, and nice tables and
chairs replacing the old-fashioned individual desk chairs. The room is carpeted and has high quality vertical blinds to
limit the incident light when we are displaying images.
It is a really nice room in which to teach, particularly for faculty who
use Power Point or WebCT. I was one
of the first faculty in our college to get their teaching materials into WebCT
so now I can display the notes on the screen while I lecture on this material.
Now my students can listen to what I am saying instead of desperately
trying to write it all down. It was
strange for me at first to have everyone looking at me when I lectured, I
wasn’t used to that. Many more of
these rooms are being created all over campus every year.
Other changes include many new buildings and the
university’s enrollment has increased every year for the last five years,
which of course has made parking even more of a contentious issue.
Another extension was built onto Hitchner Hall for the cutting edge high
tech research of biochemistry, molecular biology and genomics.
We are currently seeking applicants for an AVS Animal Genomics position
that we received as part of a university genomics initiative.
So, if you are a PhD/DVM with genomics skills please give Jim Weber a
call (207-581-2774). I’m sure he
would be very happy to talk to you.
Yes there have been many changes at UM Zero but overall
they have been positive changes for us and our students. Have a great holiday season.
Martin Stokes, Professor and Chair
UMaine’s
Equestrian Team Triumphs with New Coach
Under the
guidance of new head coach, Allison May, the UMaine Equestrian Team turned heads
at their first show on October 5th at Dartmouth College. Despite the freezing temperatures, winds, and rain, Coach
May, 2003 graduate of UMaine and former Equestrian Team member, guided the seven
riders to one of their best shows ever. Riders
Arielle Narissi and Sam Foster started the show off right by both winning their
Intermediate Over Fences class. Liz
Hopkins and Captain Anne Jennings followed their strong performances with
placing 5th and 6th, respectively, in their Novice Over
Fences class. New members Jess
Small and Aislinn Byrne also received a 6th place ribbon each in
their Novice Over Fences class. The
flat classes began with Narissi receiving a hard earned 3rd in the
Open Flat class, while in Intermediate Flat Hopkins earned a 6th and
Foster a 5th. In the
Novice Flat class Jennings received a 4th placing and next up was
Kara Pietroski who placed 2nd in Advanced walk-trot-canter.
The last rider of the day was Captain Maureen Pease who receive a
well-deserved 3rd place in Beginner Walk-Trot-Canter.
The show was a great success for everyone involved.
Congratulations to Arielle Narissi who pointed out of her Intermediate
Over Fences class and will now being showing in Open Fences and to Anne Jennings
who also pointed out from Novice to Intermediate Flat.
The Equestrian Team will continue to compete throughout the fall where
they hope to continue their winning ways.
Written by Jess Small
Biographical Notes on
Some of the AVS Family
Robert Causey – Robert is from Harrogate,
Yorkshire, England and is one of our two equine veterinarians. He obtained his DVM from Minnesota and his PhD from LSU, was
a resident at LSU and then a clinical instructor at UFL, Gainesville.
His research centers on infections of the equine uterus and he teaches
classes in Equine Reproduction, Training the Standardbred Horse, Laboratory
Animal Science coordinates the equine program and advises the Equestrian Team.
Robert Bayer – Bob’s research and teaching
concentrates on marine aquaculture and he is director of the Lobster Institute.
His main contact with animal science students is in our Senior Topics
class where he entices students to work on various lobster projects.
His current projects include studying lobster shell disease, the
development of alternative lobster baits from soy products, and the development
of value added lobster products. A
snack food made from crustacean shell started as a senior project. Bob would like to hear from any of his former students at Rbayer@maine.edu.
Charles Wallace – Chuck was our chair for seven
years before Martin Stokes took over the reins in July 2002.
Chuck received his education in zoology at Michigan State before getting
his graduate education in Animal Science at the universities of Georgia and
Florida. His research includes
investigating factors that may affect mammary development or lactation.
He is also interested in techniques to improve reproductive efficiency in
livestock, including the use of vaginal chloride levels to predict the time of
ovulation in horses and cattle or to predict the time of lambing in sheep.
He is also cooperating with Jim Weber, our other equine vet, and Stuart
Stein, an adjunct professor of neurology, in researching the effect of thyroid
hormone levels on reproduction, fetal development, and newborn behavior.
Martin Stokes – Our current Chair received his
education at the University of Leeds in northern England and at the University
of Glasgow in western Scotland. He then moved to the heartland of American
livestock agriculture to do post-doctoral research at Kansas State University
and the University of Illinois before coming to Maine.
Martin continues to teach classes in Animal Nutrition, the Senior Topics
course sequence, several graduate level classes and he advises both
undergraduate and graduate students. His
research focuses on silage fermentation, its utilization by dairy cows and its
aerobic stability.
Kenneth Andries – Ken is the newest member of our
department. He is an assistant
extension educator with 20% of his appointment in Animal Science research.
Ken received his doctorate from KSU before holding extension positions in
Kansas and Louisiana. His work at Maine focuses on research and extension outreach
into livestock production systems and improving the profitability of Maine
livestock industries. He is
currently comparing the production traits of Angus and Belted Galloway cattle at
the Witter Teaching and Research Center. He
is also planning off-campus research into the nutritional requirements of Red
Deer in Maine.
Other members of the AVS family will be featured in
future issues of this newsletter.
A Livestock Arena for The University of Maine
The College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture
is beginning the quiet phase of a $2.4 million campaign to build a livestock
arena at the J. F. Witter Teaching and Research Center at UMaine. The arena will
provide year round education, research, and outreach opportunities, especially
for the rapidly expanding equine activities at UMaine. The Animal Science
program and its pre-veterinary concentration is one of the most sought after
programs in the college. Approximately 300 students access the Witter Center
through their courses each year.
Maine’s winters are long and that means that many of the
activities related to the University of Maine’s teaching, research, and
outreach missions at the farm are often hampered by inclement weather. A new
indoor livestock arena is essential to make the farm fully functional
year-round.
Retraining of the retired Standardbred horse is an
essential component of the program that uses research horses at the J.F. Witter
Teaching and Research Center. Most horses come to the program because they have
failed in some way at the racetrack. The horses are given a second chance
through retraining, the students gain a horse education through classes, and the
research faculty have a pool of healthy horses for research. Funds for the
equine program are obtained through resale of the horses to good homes.
Construction of the livestock arena will provide students
who show beef and dairy animals a place to practice and train in preparation for
state fairs and other events held both inside and outside of Maine. Different
breeds of livestock can be exhibited. Livestock auctions can be held. Students
in 4-H can use the facility to train and show animals.
Although the primary purpose of the arena is to educate
students and conduct beneficial research, it will also be available for
organizations to host horse and livestock shows, hold 4-H events, and purebred
and commercial sales. Therapeutic
riding is also a program area that may benefit from the livestock arena.
The building will be 120’ x 220’ with inside dimensions
of 100’ x 200’ (similar in size to an Olympic ice hockey arena). Retractable
bleaches will be installed on one side for viewing. A two-stage elevator will
allow complete handicap accessibility to the second floor multi-purpose meeting
room. There will be a welcome center that will act as the hub of activity for
the entire farm and will include the farm’s administrative offices. As part of
this project, the present horse barn, adjacent to the new livestock facility,
will be renovated to allow for a tack room, addition of six stalls, two birthing
stalls, and feed storage.
The Livestock arena is the crowning jewel that completes
the goal, set in 1997, to make the J.F. Witter Teaching and Research Center a
student-centered learning experience in a total animal science system.
Contributed by Judy Round
If you would like to receive a copy of the AVS Alumni
Newsletter in the mail, please send your name address and phone number to: Dr.
Martin Stokes, Chair 5735 Hitchner Hall, Orono, ME 04469-5735 or email him at: stokes@maine.edu
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