Along Hagadorn Road, just minutes from campus, lies a sprawling stretch of "classrooms" covered in rolling prairies and dotted by barns and research centers.
The short trek to the university farms provides not only a tranquil escape from the hustle and bustle of a campus cramped by about 40,000 students, but also is home to groundbreaking animal research.
"This is what I like," said animal science senior Liz Saletta, as she held a young bull against her hip, cradling his head with her hand as she fed him through a large baby bottle. The young calf wagged its tail in delight as it gulped down the entire bottle of formula.
This one had taken a little work. Saletta first had offered her thumb for the bull to suckle, gradually switching him to the bottle with words of gentle encouragement.
While society has evolved into one of robots capable of building cars, and cities nearly solid gray by the absence of nature's carpet of grass, the mentality and way of life of the American farmer remains a staple of American commerce. As with any profession, the tools have become more sophisticated and the methods more scientific, but the benefits remain the same.
MSU has several on-campus research farms, specializing in cattle, horses, poultry, sheep and swine. The students who work on these farms feed and care for the animals, in addition to attending regular classes.
For students working on the MSU farms, the daily human-to-animal interaction is what makes their work priceless.
Carrying on tradition
Leaving for his classes and a Friday morning meeting, beef cattle management freshman Isaac Matchett drives down the snowy, winding driveway that leads to his apartment. When he returns home, he can expect to be greeted by his neighbors in their usual way as he heads inside.
However, Matchett's situation is different from most — the apartment he shares with a fellow student is located in a barn at the MSU Sheep Teaching & Research Center, and his "neighbors" are more than 100 sheep.
Matchett, a native of Charlevoix, about 50 miles southwest of the Mackinac Bridge, is accustomed to his companions on the farm. They remind him of a home he might get to visit only once a month.
"I grew up on a sheep farm — it's always been what I wanted to do," Matchett said. "I came here to learn more."
When it came time to choose a college, the decision was simple.
"MSU is the only agricultural school in the state of Michigan — there is no one else that has a lot of experience," Matchett said.
While living on a farm may not be a typical freshman experience, the on-site convenience is valuable to both his education and his finances.
"They have the responsibility of watching the place at night in exchange for the room," said Farm Manager Alan Culham, who worked on the MSU farms when he was a student, and now has his own flock on a farm south of Webberville.
Matchett is one of seven students who work on the farm. Culham said students from all majors and experience levels can work on the farm. While some have been around sheep or other livestock their entire lives, others grew up without such firsthand knowledge.
Students can apply to work on the farms at the beginning of each semester. If their class schedules are cohesive to the farm's work schedule, they may be offered a job. While some jobs require specific experience, others allow students without prior experience to learn. The students then are paid for their hours of labor during their specific shift and any others they might pick up.
The students rotate shifts, each lasting three to four hours, doing various chores every day in accordance with their classes. They start at 8 a.m., cleaning the barns and checking on any ewes that are preparing to give birth. The sheep are fed twice a day, at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
"It's all different," Matchett said. "It's all got something you can like or dislike about it."
The three barns on the property are particularly cold on this Friday morning, with a strong wind blowing up the already fallen snow. The smell of the barn lingers heavy in the air. Matchett and his co-workers are unfazed, bundling up to head out and start their day.
Matchett's favorite part of the process is lambing, or assisting in the birthing of lambs, a process that begins in late December and ends in mid- to late April.
This also is why there is an apartment on the farm.
Matchett and his roommate check on the pregnant sheep at midnight, 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., as well as assist in delivering the lambs.
Matchett describes the labor process as "intensive but interesting." It is a meticulous system, which requires isolating the ewes in a separate barn and adjusting their feed, but he enjoys the challenge.
In between shifts on the farm, the students attend their classes on MSU's main campus. Matchett's classes consist mainly of animal science courses, which help him understand the anatomy of the animals he works with and how to properly raise them to be healthy and productive.
He explained the importance of understanding proper nutrition for the sheep and how certain nutrients need to be adjusted to best benefit the sheep in each stage of its life. For example, when a ewe is lambing or producing milk, she needs more of certain nutrients in order to provide for her offspring.
The sheep also are used for scientific purposes.
"Some of the animal science classes will take the sheep in and evaluate them on certain characteristics," said Matchett, who added that the sheep are checked for particular physical traits such as proper bone structure and stride.
As for the future, Matchett plans to proudly carry on in his father's footsteps to preserve a beloved family tradition.
"I plan to go back to our sheep farm and work in a partnership with my dad," Matchett said.
The night shift
It's 5 p.m. on a Saturday evening and Liz Saletta is heading back to work. She picked up an earlier shift and has been working on and off since 3 a.m. She will put in more than 15 hours today, working until 8:30 p.m. — the amount she normally works in a week.
While many female MSU students are busy picking out what to wear for the evening, she is pulling on a pair of rubber boots, latex gloves and muddy overalls.
Saletta is one of 15 students employed at the MSU Dairy Cattle Teaching & Research Center on College Road in Lansing — home to about 300 cows — and this is just the first part of her nightly routine.
Saletta grew up in Rochester and said her experiences with veterinarians before college were limited to small animals. She became interested in MSU's dairy program during her freshman year, when her roommate took her to visit a dairy farm.
"It turns out I like cows," she said.
Students begin their work on the farm by learning how to milk the cows, as well as how to administer vaccines.
Her job on the farm now involves feeding the calves their second meal of the day, cleaning one of the barns and checking for any calving. While it is all very physical work, she doesn't complain.
"It doesn't feel like a job most days," she said.
On nights like this, Saletta works alone. As the sun goes down and the temperature drops, it begins to snow. She drives a small farm vehicle to another barn, where she mixes together dinner for the calves. She loads up the truck with two large coolers of the mixture and several serving dishes and heads out to greet the hungry animals.
The job of maintaining a functioning dairy farm involves great diligence and knowledge of the animal's particular anatomy.
The Department of Animal Science conducts various research experiments with the cows. One such field of research is nutrition, led by Professor Mike Allen.
"My research program is to really determine how best to feed animals to keep them healthy and to produce milk more efficiently," Allen said.
Allen works alongside both undergraduate and graduate students to study dairy cow responses to certain nutrients. For example, they studied the cows' responses to fiber during both pregnancy and normal lactation. They look to balance these nutrients to prevent both excess spending — by creating efficient feeding — as well as environmentally harmful waste.
"We want to feed cows optimally so they don't secrete excess nutrients as waste," Allen said.
Saletta, who lives in Okemos, said the cows on the dairy farm — which include heifers, bulls, steers and lactating female cows — are in fact friendly and calm around humans on the farm. Since the farm is open to the public, the cows get a lot of curious visitors.
"We are research and teaching farms, so they are handled so often they act like pets," Saletta said, adding that it is important to keep the animals calm and healthy because the more stressed they are, the less milk they will produce.
Saletta has learned to understand the animals, such as the young bull she was feeding, as the other students do through constant interaction with them.
"That means he is happy and healthy," Saletta said, referring to his swishing tail.
After two and a half years as an employee on the farm, Saletta has taken more than just information about dairy farming from her instructors — she also forms a relationship she describes as being "like a family."
"Our program is unique and you get a lot from your teachers," she said. "Your professors become your mentors."
Although she may work alone, Saletta is never without help on the farm. Two students live there in an apartment, and the rest of the staff is just a phone call away. Farm Manager Robert Kreft currently lives across the road from the farm.
When it comes to the future, Saletta is not sure which animals she wants to work with after veterinary school, but she plans to stay on the farm for a while longer. She said MSU's large animal and livestock programs have left her well prepared for her continued education.
"It's been a real confidence builder for me," Saletta said.
But no matter where she ends up, her experience on the farm will be with her for some time.
"It's hard to explain the way you feel when you see a calf born and you get to name it," Saletta said. "The calf grows up, and you go to the store and drink milk, and you know you are part of that process."
