Day 2 with Riley

Yesterday was the second day of our Summer Ag tour. We woke up at 6:00 AM so that we could have ourselves ready along with all of our belongings downstairs at 6:30 AM.  We started our day by eating breakfast in the lobby of the hotel we stayed at the previous night.  The leader of the Summer Ag Tour, Mr. Hamilton, had to leave the hotel at exactly 6:30 and go pick up a student from the airport in St. Louis that would be joining us later that day, so we loaded everything into his car.  After he left we finished up eating and loaded into the remaining two cars.  Our first destination of the day was the University of Missouri.

Memorial Student Center at the University of Missouri

We went into one of the classrooms on campus and had the Student Recruitment Coordinator, Ms. Julie Scroggs, come speak with us. She gave us an overview of the university as a whole and then began talking about the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, also known as CAFNR. She talked very briefly on the agriculture related majors and she educated us on the difference between a minor and a major.

After she was done with the introduction for the programs she introduced Dr. Mary Hendrickson.  Dr. Hendrickson talked to us about what our definition of sustainable agriculture was.  We talked about whether to not we thought that farms were sustainable and discussed the sustainability of certain restaurants.  We discussed which words came to mind when we heard the word sustainability. A few words/phrases that we were able to come up with were things such as lasting, durability, support and replenish, and many more. Dr. Hendrickson taught me that we all rely on each other like a three-legged stool. The seat itself represented sustainable Ag and food systems because that is what we are trying to support.  The three legs of the stool were represented by the words Economy, Environment, and community or Equity.  They all depend on each other to be a working, sustainable system. 

Shortly after Dr. Hendrickson’s presentation, Ms. Scroggs walked us across campus to the complete other side where the Animal Science Research Center is located.  I really enjoyed getting to see all of the buildings on campus and getting to see the different activities offered at Mizzou.  Following the walk across campus we met up with the Coordinator, Captive Wild Animal Management Minor DIVISION OFANIMAL SCIENCES AND DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE SCIENCES, Dr.Trista Strauch.  Dr. Strauch talked to us in depth about the majors and more about the different opportunities in studying abroad.  The thing I found most interesting from her power point was a pig that they made able to glow in the dark by extracting the glow gene from a jellyfish and inserting it into an embryo of a pig.  They then took that embryo and transferred it into a surrogate mother.  They do this as a way to track the swine that have had this procedure.  When we finished up the power point Dr. Strauch gave us a tour of the Animal Science Research Center.  We got to see some of the different labs and see what the typical college classroom looks like.  I really appreciated the opportunity to observe and learn about Mizzou and will maybe consider attending someday.  Lunch in the student center was very good and was definitely needed for the long car trip to Purina Farms. 

Yorkshire piglets at the Purina Research Farm Visitor Center

At Purina Farms we were able to go to the barn located right outside of the visitors center.  In the barn there were many different species.  There were three horses, a donkey, four cows, three sheep, three geese, and numerous chickens, rabbits and even a handful of swine. My favorite part about the barn was the piglets because we were able to get very close to them and even got to touch them.  

Another interesting feature of the barn was the huge rabbit right when you walk into the door.  Robby, the rabbit, was somewhere around 25 pounds; which is more than my dog weighs!  

Purina Research Center's Dog Pool

To end our adventures of the day we watched the dogs at the Purina farms in their Incredible Dog Arena. In the show, we watched the dogs run across a log runway and then go leaping into the air for their toy which resulted in them diving into the water. Then we loaded back up into the cars and headed to the hotel.  

Overall I am having lots of fun here and I am getting many new experiences, while also getting to meet many new people! Tomorrow we are getting a tour of Mark Twain’s house in Hannibal, Missouri.