Animal Science: CREAM 2 (A)

About ASCI 2310 A

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.

Notes

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

Section Description

Course Description
The purpose of this course is to augment learning acquired during previous CREAM experience and for the student to provide technical, logistical, organizational support to the current group of CREAM students.

Section Expectation

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

Evaluation

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.

Important Dates

Courses may be cancelled due to low enrollment. Show your interest by enrolling.

Resources

• Parking
• PACE Course Pricing
• Textbooks