This is a Dairy Animal Welfare elective, in which students will learn about evaluating dairy farms with the Dean Foods Dairy Well Evaluation and the National FARM program. We will cover all aspects of dairy animal welfare in all age classes.
We provide all materials and equipment needed (except personal items i.e. coveralls and boots). Students will want to prepare themselves by learning the Dairy Well Audit from the Dean Foods website or the PAACO website. We also highly recommend on line lameness scoring and the free Cow Signals training videos. Merck Dairy Well 365 videos are also available on line and are highly recommended for students to review.
Student will work the hours of the veterinarian. Which on some days, could be extended hours ( for example 12 hour days are adjusted to meet milking schedules and drive time=as in 3:30 am to 5 pm) other days it could be as small as 4 to 5 hours. The student will perform live on the farm dairy welfare evaluations.
Private guest house provided at no cost for 1 week./no pets. 2nd week is dependent on location and activities performed.