Hi! My name is Abby, and I am a fourth year Animal and Veterinary Science major. To take a detour from our bovine friends, I wanted to talk about something avian! It’s a known fact among students that we see a lot of pigeons here at Witter farm. We all know the rules about keeping the nets down in front of the doors to keep them out of the barn, and it definitely feels like they are plotting their way in sometimes. Watching from the roofs or the power lines to wait for that split second to make their way inside. While they can be a bit of a pest and it feels like they are constantly watching you, some of them are pretty cool to look at. With so many pigeons who have made themselves home at the farm we’ve seen some pretty cool color patterns emerge. Such as this beauty in the pictures below!
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Hi there! My name is Jocelyn and I am a second year Pre-vet student here at UMaine. We have had a lot of calves born on the farm lately, some of which are beef cows. However, we do not have any beef cow moms here, so how is that possible?
Embryo transfer! Because the Witter Center maintains a strict biosecurity system, it makes it difficult to bring new animals into the farm. So when we wanted to start a beef herd here, the best option was embryo transfers. This would allow us to bring in new genetics, without needing to bring in new animals. So, how does this work? An embryo from an angus cow is fertilized by a Hereford bull to create “Baldy” cattle, which gets its name from their typical “bald” faces. These calves are typically black with a white face. Once the embryo is fertilized, it is flushed out and put into one of our Holstein girls. The embryo grows in the uterus of our cow, and she calves out just as she would if it were biologically her calf. The embryos are also pre-sexed, so we know if the calf will be a heifer (female) or bull (male). It is a pretty interesting process! |
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