After Labor Day, the labor begins!

I'm glad to report good news from returning faculty and students--everyone seemed to enjoy Labor Day and other than being a little sad to return to the daily grind, falling back in the routine! Now things begin to get busy....

On behalf of the TTU School of Agriculture, Dr. David Frazier is coordinating a National Officer candidate training here at Tennessee Tech this coming weekend. Candidates from Tennessee, Texas, New Mexico, Delaware and Virginia will be here and the team is planning to give them a workout. On Friday, Dr. Frazier will use collegiate students to do one-on-one interviews, facilitation and personal rounds. Frazier plans to use college students for this (as that is the age group scoring them at nationals) but will use any adults available! As you can tell these workshops have been successful in the past--the image to your left is James Flatt preparing for state office and the one to your right is Chelsea Doss preparing for National office--both were successful!

In addition, Cookeville area high school students will be coming in for the Facilitation rounds Friday evening for a couple of hours. Saturday morning Dr. Frazier is planning on concentrating on round robin and stand and deliver. His initial schedule includes each student doing two stand and delivers. Each student will be given 15 minutes with the judges for their speech, questions and then critiques. Because most of the candidates will be flying out Saturday afternoon, Dr. Frazier retains the right to get pretty creative with the schedule so no one is late getting back on the road home. Schedules are very hectic and time very precious so we to run from 8:30 a.m. on Saturday until around noon.

While Dr. Frazier is working with potential National FFA officers, Dr. Baier is battling another challenge! Dr. Baier and students are busy boxing up equipment and tools in the basement of the Jere Whitson Building to move out to the renovated Calf Parlor at the Shipley Farm. In case you haven't heard, we are in process of converting the old dairy center into a dream Agricultural Engineering Teaching Center! Be sure to check the TTU Shipley Farm facebook page to updates with the construction!

Moving--don't you love it? Where do you even start? But the good news is they have a clean, newly painted building to move it to! Recognize the building below?

The First Day

I survived the first day! Doesn't sound too impressive does it? But I wanted the first day of my second semester at Tennessee Tech to go well. And it did! Everyone seemed to make it to their classes and it did not rain, and our classes are full--of course we could always use a little more capital, but what's new with that?

We welcomed our students back with homemade cookies and lots of smiles! It seems like our class numbers are also growing. For example, the Introductory Animal Science class filled some time ago and we added another section on Tuesday nights. Today I had 52 students in section 1 and the roll says Dr. Greene will have 32 tomorrow night! Even Soils (which is notorious for being a difficult class) is full!
I think that this what comes from having an enthusiastic and talented faculty and staff. Students can always tell when people sincerely want them to succeed.
Notice we lost a few cookies to faculty passing by...."Caught 'ya Dr. Best!"

What did You Do this summer?

At the School of Agriculture, it never seems to slow down much. We still keep up with routine needs, even those folks on a 9 month contract are regulars at dropping by the office or making time for important meetings.

In June, the faculty traveled to Pennsylvania for the North American College Teachers of Agriculture Conference. On the way, we were able to complete our new Strategic Plan and make big headway on serious "think tank" conversations....plus we had a great time! Although we work together every day all year long, most people don't realize how little time we have together to learn more about each other and what we bring to our table.

Before our trip to PA, faculty and staff spent two days in a planning meeting determining new directions and plans for the coming year. Not only did this help us all get on the same page, it helped each of us recognize the value of our peers--TTU IS A GREAT PLACE TO BE!

The remainder of the summer has been utilized to prepare for fall classes, initiating, the renovation of the dairy loafing shed and calf parlor on its way to becoming the new Agricultural Engineering laboratory and classroom, and beginning to put our strategic plans into action!

TTU Ag graduate completes veterinary internship at Shipley Farm

Elizabeth Haggard, a recent graduate of the TTU School of Agriculture has returned to Tennessee Tech, but NOT as a student. She is completing an internship at TTU's Shipley Farm with assistant farm manager Amanda Houser.

Haggard, a Chattanooga native, graduated from TTU in 2006 with a bachelor of science in agriculture with concentration pre-veterinary science. She is now in her third year of veterinary school at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

A requirement for her degree is 12 weeks of extramural studies--essentially an internship to gain more experience with animals. Since her main experience in Scotland has been with sheep, Haggard chose to spend two weeks of her extramural studies at Tech's Shipley Farm to gain more experience with hogs and cattle.

"I have assisted Amanda with her duties on the farm, including feeding pigs and cattle, weaning young pigs, ear notching and repairing a hernia," Haggard said.

Haggard said she has been able to apply what she has learned in the classroom to expand her knowledge of animals even more.

"There is nothing better than practical experience," she said.

Haggard will graduate with a bachelor of veterinary medicine and surgery, the equivalent to a doctor of veterinary medicine in the United States. Since the University of Glasgow is accredited with the American Veterinary Medical Association, she will be eligible to receive her American veterinary license.