7 minute read
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.
“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.
To some, it’s obvious why the class would spend so much time on the nutritional background for an operation, and less so to others. For Grady, he’s witnessed how much quicker a veterinarian can get to the bottom of any health issues when they understand the multiple systems involved in a feedlot.
“Showing how the feedlot world works to new and upcoming veterinarians will help us in our day-to-day problems,” he says.
Lilli Heinen, fourth-year student in the fall class, says the course provided her with not just technical skills, but also the ability to discuss with producers and managers ways to solve these same issues Grady mentioned.
“The big hurdle for working in a feedlot setting, whether it’s on the ground or higher up in the company, is understanding the intricacies of that operation and industry as a whole,”
After this rotation, I can have more meaningful discussions with feedlot managers about their operation and issues.
she says. “After this rotation, I can have more meaningful discussions with feedlot managers about their operation and issues.”
Midday, the class was treated to a session with Luke Knight, general manager, and Dr. Nels Lindberg, DVM class of 2001 and owner of the Animal Medical Center. Dr. Lindberg talked to the class about the role of being a consulting veterinarian for feedlots and lessons in leadership.
“I think it’s important for them to have a basic understanding that learning isn’t just about their academic area of interest,” Dr. Lindberg says. “If they want to reach their full potential, it requires reflection, great humility and desire to tackle big problems beyond being a veterinarian. People around them — their teams and families — depend on them to do that.”
The final leg of the day was held at J&E Cattle Company near Great Bend, Kansas. Students learned about the operation and paired up to perform a necropsy on two different calves.
“Our students learn pathology and necropsy skills here at the college,” Dr. Apley says. “By continuing that practice in the direct context of the feedlot environment we are able to relate the pathology directly to all of the factors having an impact on cattle health.”
From the two stops in the day, students were able to compare the different processes and goals of the operations, while also noting similarities.
“Both have the same end goal: feed cattle in an efficient way to produce high quality beef while emphasizing the importance of cattle health and welfare,” Lilli says. “Both struggle with the same issues: cattle and feed prices, ability to find high quality labor, cattle health issues, etc.”
On this day, this class of students absorbed enough information combined with a hands-on skills clinic to move them further on the path to becoming well-rounded veterinarians in the industry.
“My favorite part [of the class] is listening to Dr. Apley’s words of wisdom while we are driving,” Holly says. “He will ask us in-depth questions and get us thinking, give us real life scenarios, include us in conversations with veterinarians that he is having, and treats us as veterinarians, but also knows we have a lot to learn still.”
Taking it forward
To conclude the two-week class, students complete an hour-long written final exam which covers many of the basic requirements for functioning and communicating in the feedlot environment. Additionally, they are responsible for creating treatment and processing protocols, including case definitions which are the basis for deciding if an animal does or does not have a disease. The goal of the course, Dr. Apley says, is creating a veterinarian who is able to recognize normal and abnormal function of all the components of the feedlot system, and then treat and eventually prevent problems when they arise. For example, the class this fall spent a lot of time discussing management of heat stress after the challenges seen in eastern Kansas in August.
“I hope to graduate students with an understanding of feedlot production and economics, personnel management and relations, prevention and treatment of common diseases, data interpretation, environmental management, basic nutritional challenges, and growth enhancement,” Dr. Apley adds. “It is a complex
One of the things Dr. Apley emphasizes is that the experiences in the course are made possible by friends of the college such as, on this day, Luke Knight and Grady Woodard at Knight Feedlot and Josh Gales at J&E cattle.
“There are many gracious feedlot and backgrounding operations which welcome us to their facilities and invest their time in our program,” he says. “I hope we return the favor by educating the next generation of veterinarians to partner with them in a leading industry in Kansas.”
