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The training of food animal veterinarian in dairy production medicine will address the national need for expanded and enhanced quality of veterinary graduates serving the dairy industry at all levels. This will serve to address issues of Food Security and Hunger and Food Safety; two of the five Priority Areas specified for the grant.<P> In order to specially accomplish the objectives of the grant and fulfill the needs of the HEC program we will undertake the following: Develop a series of educational modules across the spectrum of topics relevant to dairy production medicine that include classroom, experiential laboratory, web-based, and field experiences in a wide array of dairy industry components (farms, milk processing, sale barns, feed mills, etc.). <P> The modules could serve as templates and provide materials to other veterinary schools trying to provide production medicine education in their curricula. Present those modules to 32 or more senior veterinary students from all four institutions in the Class of 2013 (and from other colleges of veterinary medicine if space allows), providing many of them an educational opportunity that simply is not available at their home college. <P> This project will provide educational experiences for roughly 20% of all veterinarians entering into service in the dairy industry that year. <P> We assert that this enhanced educational opportunity will attract students that might otherwise not pursue dairy veterinary medicine as a career because they doubted their ability to learn what they needed to know before entering the profession. We also assert that students that complete these modules will be more likely to remain in a dairy career after graduation. <P> Facilitate faculty development by enabling close interaction between faculty at four colleges and beyond in the development and presentation of these modules. This will be particularly valuable for faculty from colleges with only a small (or singular) dairy veterinary faculty.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: <BR> This project will create a series of four independent two week intensive production medicine modules intended to provide the consultation and herd management skills needed by new veterinary graduates who will serve commercial dairy farms or enter elsewhere in the dairy food system profession. The faculty from four colleges of veterinary medicine (MN, IL, GA, KSU) will participate in their appropriate areas of expertise in the development and planning of these modules. Planning will emphasize a mixed instructional methodology including lectures, laboratories, hands-on experiences, herd and other dairy infrastructure visits, web instruction, and computer records and economic evaluations. Senior veterinary students in the Class of 2013 from the four colleges who are planning a career in dairy veterinary medicine will spend two months in residence at the Dairy Education Center of the University of Minnesota. The Center is an academic facility integrated into a large commercial dairy in southern Minnesota with classrooms, dormitory, and training facilities. The curriculum will be taught by faculty from the colleges as well as experts from across the dairy industry and the educational outcomes evaluated for these students. This will serve as a first model of a National Center of Excellence in Dairy Veterinary Education.
<P> APPROACH: <BR> This project will create a series of four independent two week intensive production medicine modules intended to provide the consultation and herd management skills needed by new veterinary graduates who will serve commercial dairy farms or enter elsewhere in the dairy food system profession. The faculty at all four colleges will participate in their appropriate areas of expertise in the development and planning of these modules. Planning will emphasize a mixed instructional methodology including lectures, laboratories, hands-on experiences, herd and other dairy infrastructure visits, web instruction, and computer records and economic evaluations. Each of the four modules will be conducted twice per year in residential two week rotations at the University of Minnesota's Dairy Education Center. Modules will be presented in pairs, so students will come to the DEC for a 4 week experience. Products: teaching materials, curricular plans, and web materials developed and assembled for the modules, experience in actual implementation of the planned curriculum. Outcomes / impacts: We believe that the end result will be a significantly better prepared cohort of new veterinary graduates entering dairy practice. We believe the U.S. dairy industry and food system will gain the advantages of a more capable profession in terms of its service to milk production, animal and public health and welfare, food system and export security, and possible response to calamity events in the dairy food system. This project will importantly serve as a "proof of concept" of the value of multi-institutional "Centers of Excellence" in food animal veterinary education. Outcomes include: acquisition of critical knowledge and skills by students; increased student awareness of the dairy veterinarian's roles and responsibilities in food production, food safety, and food security; increased student confidence in pursuing employment in dairy-related fields; high retention and satisfaction once employed in those fields; a more efficient and sustainable teaching model that consolidates resources and expertise to deliver a model curriculum to students from diverse veterinary colleges; continuation of the project beyond the funding period; and sharing of methods to facilitate development of similar multi-institutional partnerships at other sites or focused on other food animal species.