EXCEPTIONAL TEACHING | IMPACTFUL RESEARCH | OUTSTANDING SERVICE | EXTRAORDINARY GRADUATES
One of a Kind Feedlot elective class offers students extra preparation for food animal medicine. Story and photos by Audrey Hambright
It may come as no surprise that the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine has a feedlot rotation for senior students. As reported by Kansas Ag Statistics in January 2023, Kansas ranked third nationally with 6.25 million cattle on ranches and in feedyards. That’s a little over twice the state’s human population of more than 2.9 million. How does this impact the education of veterinary students? As a major food supplier to the world, Kansas agriculture is in constant need of food animal veterinarians. Agriculture is the largest economic driver in Kansas, with a total contribution of $81 billion to the Kansas economy. (KDA website) In September 2023, USDA APHIS reported that of all practicing veterinarians in the United States, only 4% serve the food animal industry. This number includes both food animal only and mixed animal practitioners. These statistics support the widely recognized need for food animal veterinarians. This is where the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine steps in.
Unique class prepares future veterinarians Taught biannually in the summer and fall by Dr. Mike Apley, professor of production medicine, the feedlot rotation class was developed so students could gain advanced skills in working with the large cattle populations found in feedlots. A two-week intensive elective course for fourth-year students, the class consists of lecture/discussion periods, labs and on-site visits, and is open to veterinary students across the country. Since its start in 2006, students from 17 different schools have traveled to partake in the course. K-State is the only veterinary college to offer a class of this kind. 18 | wildcatveterinarian
“It is really rewarding to get to know the students on a more personal basis and find out their plans and how they hope to use what they gain in the class,” Dr. Apley says. “It is also interesting to see how our curriculum and experiences compare with programs from other schools.” Holly Wilson, fourth-year student in the fall class, says she enrolled to understand production medicine relative to feedlots. “I have taken dairy production medicine, but there are obvious differences between the two,” she says. “Since Kansas has both of these production styles, I thought it would be a good idea to be familiar with both as I enter into my career.”
A day in the life Only three days into the fall course, four fourth-year K-State students traveled with Dr. Apley to Knights Feedlot Inc., a third-generation family-owned operation near Lyons, Kansas. Greeted by assistant manager, Grady Woodard, the students received an overview of the operation followed by a behind-the-scenes tour of the feed mill. While the feedlot has always had its own feed mill, it underwent significant updates in December 2021 allowing it to increase production from 13 tons/hour to 40 tons/hour. The feedlot steams its own corn which is then rolled to create flakes to maximize the nutrients available from the corn. The technology available for monitoring feed intake per animal in each pen is a sight to be appreciated all its own. The students were exposed to the feed intake curves for multiple pens of cattle with lessons in each one about managing feed intake related to both performance and health.
