Animal Science: CREAM 2

The second of a two-course sequence. Students perform the work and make the financial and management decisions associated with the CREAM dairy herd. Prerequisites: ASCI 2300.

Instructor Permission required Prereqs enforced by the system: ASCI 2300 Open to degree and PACE students

Objectives: 1. Introduce and discuss the current practices in dairy farm management and apply that knowledge to the management of the CREAM herd. 2. Familiarize students with how to manage and operate a business. 3. Provide students with the opportunity to gain leadership, communication, problem solving and time management skills that will give them an advantage in their careers and make them more valuable to future employers. 4. Apply knowledge gained to real world problems and present the findings at the annual dinner

Responsibilities of CREAMers: Chores: Each person must do chores every week during the school session and almost all should be present for vacation times Be kind to each other! • Be punctual • Be responsible and do the job well • Take initiative • Communicate with others • Be attentive to problems • Solve problems immediately, don’t leave it for someone else • Help others if they have a scheduling problem and you are able • Report any issues such as bullying, sexual harassment, animal abuse immediately to Dr. Wadsworth Business Meetings and Classes: Each person must attend all weekly business meetings and classes. • Be punctual • Actively participate in discussions so that meetings run smoothly and decisions get made in a timely fashion • Have committee work done thoroughly with a concise report and present recommendations to the group with justification

Peer Evaluations: 15% Two peer evaluations will be completed using a standardized rubric. Performance/participation assessment: 25% To be conducted by Dr. Wadsworth, Faerin Dick, and Matt Bodette using the same standardized rubric based on participation in meeting, lecture and demonstration of the core competencies as outlined below. This will be performed at the end of the semester. Webinars-25% Each student will watch 5 online webinars (for example Hoard’s Dairyman, Balchem webinar series) during the semester and write a brief review of each one in your reflections. During the semester beginning in October, I will call on students to give a short oral summary of a webinar they have watched during class. Students will choose which webinars to watch based upon their interests. https://hoards.com/articles.sec-66-1-webinar-archives.html https://balchem.com/animal-nutrition-health/anh-resources/real-science-exchange/ End of Semester Project: 25% This project should focus an area of opportunity within the UVM CREAM herd to improve upon some aspect of the herd. Examples include but are not limited to milk production/components, reproduction, animal health, heifer raising or animal welfare. The project should take the form of a 8-10 page, 1.5 spaced paper describing the background of the issue, relevant research on the topic from peer-reviewed literature and a proposal for improvement defended by appropriate literature review. The paper should also contain an estimate for the cost of implementing the proposed improvement. Dr. Wadsworth is available for help in all aspects of this project. Please don’t hesitate to ask. A sign-up sheet will be provided for topics. Ideally, every individual should work on a different area of opportunity, but some overlap between topics is acceptable. Please ask Dr. Wadsworth for clarification as needed. In addition to the written paper, a 5 minute PowerPoint presentation will be prepared for presentation at the Annual Banquet in November. This short, but sweet presentation should include the following slides: Identification of the problem, Background, Research, Proposed Solution and Estimated cost of the solution. Dr. Wadsworth will give examples of this presentation format during lecture prior to the banquet. The written paper is due at midnight November 24th. Participation in Evaluating UVM CREAM 2026 candidates and Bovine Bonanza: 10% All students are expected to participate in evaluation of candidates for the 2025 CREAM program during regularly scheduled chores. An evaluation rubric will be provided for use during these evaluations.