{"id":8845,"date":"2011-11-02T16:01:37","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T21:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=8845"},"modified":"2011-11-02T14:38:50","modified_gmt":"2011-11-02T19:38:50","slug":"cattle-donation-allows-apsu-agriculture-department-to-expand-offerings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2011\/11\/02\/cattle-donation-allows-apsu-agriculture-department-to-expand-offerings\/","title":{"rendered":"Cattle donation allows APSU Agriculture Department to expand offerings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – In August of 2010, the Austin Peay State University Department of Agriculture had the unfortunate designation as being both a small and growing program within the University. Its student population had increased by about 20 percent in two years, but the department only had three full-time faculty members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed an additional faculty member to help us teach the increase in students, but late that summer, I was getting word we might not get a new position,\u201d Dr. Donald Sudbrink, chair of the APSU Department of Agriculture, said. \u201cThen we received this wonderful donation, and so many positive things happened in rapid succession. It was a game changer for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chad<\/a>

Chad Pugh, with the APSU Department of Agriculture, gives visitors a tour of the University\u2019s Environmental Education Center, or APSU Farm, during last week\u2019s Preserving the Pride Celebration. (Photo by Beth Liggett\/APSU Public Relations and Marketing).<\/p><\/div>\n

The donation was a gift of 60 registered Angus cattle and three bulls by APSU alumnus Marshall Ross (\u201964). It was the second major gift he\u2019d presented to the department, following his 2008 donation of 16 Belted Galloway cattle.<\/p>\n

The donations drastically increased the department\u2019s capabilities in offering hands-on animal science courses and also allowed APSU to hire Dr. Rodney Mills, assistant professor of agriculture, to teach those classes. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Mills oversees the genetics and breeding program of the cowherd with the goal of building upon this foundation to produce high-quality, functional cattle that can be marketed to local producers.<\/p>\n

Last week, the department invited local farmers, alumni and APSU supporters to the University\u2019s Environmental Education Center, also known as the APSU Farm, for the Preserving the Pride event, to celebrate Ross\u2019s gift and to show how it will continue to allow the department to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cContributing like that to the University has such a long-reaching impact,\u201d Vonda St. Amant, senior development officer at APSU. \u201cIt changed our agriculture department.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the dinner and reception, Sudbrink unveiled plans for a new multipurpose animal science facility at the farm. The proposed facility would include a lab and animal handling facility with the capabilities to conduct and demonstrate modern livestock breeding techniques, such as artificial insemination, embryo transfer, palpation, estrus detection and semen collection. The proposed lab would also be able to house up to 48 students for teaching purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, we\u2019re preserving not just the cattle genetics but also increasing agricultural education opportunities for our students,\u201d Sudbrink said.<\/p>\n

The proposed facility is still in the early development phases, with funding and approvals still pending. But donations such as Ross\u2019 have allowed the department to dream big and expand its offerings within this community.<\/p>\n

For more information on the donations or the proposed animal science facility, contact the APSU Department of Agriculture at 931.221.7272.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – In August of 2010, the Austin Peay State University Department of Agriculture had the unfortunate designation as being both a small and growing program within the University. Its student population had increased by about 20 percent in two years, but the department only had three full-time faculty members. \u201cWe needed an additional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[5074,11537,23,4680,10061,5081,5082,262,5087,5093,5982,11538,11536,11539,11540],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-2iF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8845"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8847,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8845\/revisions\/8847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}