College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Above ↑ Becky Adams is in charge of rotational grazing and oversees interns on her family's certified organic dairy farm near Eleva.
Preparing for a Lifetime of Change - On the farm, it's all applied biology
Becky Adams followed a tradition that’s as old as the College itself. She majored in dairy science, then returned to her family’s farm in Eleva (population 635), near Eau Claire, to apply what she’d learned.
But her undergraduate education was a far cry from the one that dairy science students received even a couple of decades ago. That makes sense, because the Wisconsin dairy industry of today is quite different from what previous generations of farm kids were familiar with.
Returning to the farm wasn’t her original plan. Like a lot of students from dairy farms, she thought she’d stay in the industry — perhaps as a veterinarian — but not in dairy production. But she reconsidered and opted to earn a dairy science degree and return to her family’s 800-acre organic dairy operation (700 Holsteins and 12 Brown Swiss) to work alongside her father and brother.
“I really like the cows,” Adams says. “I’m in charge of the rotational grazing of the cows in the summer and help oversee the interns.” She is also in charge of buying and breeding the Brown Swiss stock.
Adams earned her degree with a natural science emphasis. She says what she learned in her science classes — the genetics behind breeding, the biochemistry of lactation and cow nutrition — gave her a solid foundation for what she does on the farm.
She also picked up a good deal of practical experience outside of class. She competed in the Dairy Challenge — an intercollegiate competition in which teams of students analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a commercial dairy farm and present their conclusions to a panel of industry professionals. Adams’ team took one of the top awards at a national competition at State College, Penn.
But she got her most valuable experience much farther off campus, on a study tour of the Mexican dairy industry led by dairy scientist Michel Wattiaux and animal scientist Jack Rutledge.
“Having the opportunity to travel to Mexico with the university was a great learning experience,” says Adams. “It was a first step to introduce us to the industry and the culture.” She followed up by returning to Mexico for a six-week intensive Spanish language program to build on the Spanish classes she had taken in high school.
“We have eight Hispanic workers at home,” she says. “I wanted to work with them and be able to communicate better.”
But after six weeks, she was more than ready to go home. “I got really homsick,” Adams says “I missed my cows.”