A little before 2 p.m. on Monday, veterinarian Jill Brester was elbow deep in a cow.
Brester, an intern with the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, was performing a routine abdominal surgery on the cow at the MSU Training Center for Dairy Professionals, a new university facility which officially opens today. The facility is located at Green Meadow Farms Inc., about half an hour north of campus in Elsie.
MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon is scheduled to speak at the dedication ceremony, as well as deans from the colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture and Natural Resources.
"This is probably the most common surgery we do," large animal clinical sciences Assistant Professor Will Raphael said of the procedure Brester was performing.
It is one of approximately 350 surgeries MSU veterinarians perform each year on cattle at Green Meadow Farms.
The farm is a privately run, for-profit dairy farm. It also boasts the largest purebred Holstein herd in North America, said Nanda Joshi, a research associate with the College of Veterinary Medicine.
The farm has more than 9,000 cattle, with 3,200 milk-producing cows at any given time.
"We've always had a very good relationship with Green Meadow Farms," said Thomas Herdt, chairman of the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences. "We wanted to take more advantage of the opportunities that were there."
"We knew it would take some new funding ... so we decided to see if we could enlist the help of some industry sponsors."
The training center is funded primarily by Land O'Lakes Purina Feed LLC and GreenStone Farm Credit Services.
Lou Neuder, director of the center and an associate professor of veterinary medicine at MSU, said it was a "win, win, win partnership" for all parties involved.
Corporate sponsors benefited from access to MSU students and research data gathered at the farm, he said, and Green Meadow Farms get the expertise of MSU veterinarians.
Students get a chance to learn how to perform medical procedures on the animals and study herd management, he said.
"The university gets an opportunity to work in a real commercial environment," Neuder said.
The veterinarians on site keep a detailed database of information on the herd, and are involved in research projects.
"We are sitting on a pile of data," Joshi said.
The center was created partially in an attempt to stimulate interest in large-animal medicine. Faculty in the College of Veterinary Medicine said there has been a national shortage of large-animal veterinarians.
"There's a concern because many of the areas we need veterinarians for are rural areas," said Janver Krehbiel, acting dean of the college. Most students are interested in working in urban environments, he said.
Only about 10 percent of veterinary students enter a dairy practice or treat a mix of large and small animals, Raphael said.
But all veterinary medicine students are required to do work with cows.
"Our curriculum ? wants our graduates right now to have some exposure to dairy and other farm animals," he said.
The training center, which Herdt said was conceived about two years ago, will be used primarily by veterinary medicine and animal science students.
On average, there will be three students at the center each week. The new facility includes two dorm-style bedrooms for students who have to stay overnight; for example, if they were monitoring a cow giving birth. About 15 calves are born on the farm each day.
Neuder said the center is unique for the hands-on training it gives students on a real dairy farm.
"It's our answer to trying to fill the need, to better train dairy students," he said.
