Today’s episode was filmed at the American Dairy Science Association Annual Meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Joining us are the ADSA organizers and research winners to discuss their projects. Dr. Clay Zimmerman is our co-host this week.
Today’s episode was filmed at the American Dairy Science Association Annual Meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Joining us are the ADSA organizers and research winners to discuss their projects. Dr. Clay Zimmerman is our co-host this week.
Our first guests are Dr. Corwin Nelson, University of Florida and Kari Estes, Balchem. Dr. Nelson is the overall committee chair for the conference and said more than 1,300 abstracts were submitted. Of those, 1,254 were accepted to present at the ADSA conference. (1:44) Ms. Estes, who was a poster judge mentioned she looks for the aesthetics of the poster, but was also impressed with the rigor of research, especially with the winning posters. (5:22)
Our next guests are presentation winner, Ursula Abou-Rjeileh, Michigan State University and her advisor, Dr. Andres Contreras, Michigan State University. Ursula is a second-time winner and her research focuses on the effects of fatty acids on lipid accumulation and mitochondrial function in the post-partum phase. Her research showed that supplementing oleic acid with pulmonary acid, especially post-partum means cows don’t lose a lot of body weight. Her presentation name is Oleic acid promotes lipid accumulation and improves
mitochondrial function in bovine adipocytes.(10:11)
Our third set of guests includes master’s poster winner Corienne Gammariello, The Ohio State University - Wooster and her advisor Dr. Ben Enger, The Ohio State University - Wooster. Corienne spoke about their research methods and how unique they were. She used dead bacteria and was able to elicit an immune response of an udder half, they used a split udder design model. Her poster title is Killed Staphylococcus aureus intramammary challenge
induces subclinical mastitis and clear changes in milk composition but not milk yield.(15:11)
Next, we have Richard Lobo, winner of the Ph.D poster contest, from the University of Florida. Richard’s research was trying to replace soybean milk with algae. He saw that replacing 100% of soybean meal results in no fermentation. (20:15) More research is needed, because it is not yet known if protein that was not degraded in the rumen is going to be degraded later on, and absorbed. So we are still in the process of understanding how to use these protein sources with dairy cows. His poster title is Utilization of algae biomass as a partial replacement for
soybean meal in the diet of dairy cows in vitro. (21:25)
Our last guests are Luke Quian, Cornell University and Connor McCabe, University of California Davis, who are the President and Vice President of the GSD (Graduate Student Division) at ADSA. Connor said that scientific presentation is a large reason to attend ADSA, but there are equal benefits and opportunities through networking, career development and professional pieces. (28:52)
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Scott (00:07):
Good evening everyone, and welcome to the Real Science Exchange, the pubcast where leading scientists and industry professionals meet over a few drinks to discuss the latest ideas and trends in animal nutrition. Today we're at the ADSA scientific meetings, and we're here with Corwin Nelson from University of Florida. Corwin is the overall committee chair for the conference. Corwin, can you kind of give us an overview of what's taken place this week?
Corwin (00:32):
Yeah. So we have an overall exciting lineup, and as I said at the opening session, this is one of the best meetings I think we'll have yet for a dsa. And I said, it's certainly not because of my efforts. It's because of all the science that's presented here and everybody coming together to make this happen and the science they've been working on and presenting here this week and all the discussions that we have taking place during this time. And so that's what makes it such a great meeting. So from what I've heard, we have close to 1700 registrations for the meeting. So a great, great attendance that,
Scott (01:05):
How does that compare?
Corwin (01:07):
So we, it based on previous numbers or certainly back above what we had pre-covidera and so I think this would be the most since ADSA has been meeting alone as a standalone society.
Scott (01:22):
So yeah, you talked about standalone any chances getting back with and
Corwin (01:26):
I sure hope so. There's, I know there's a lot of people that want it to happen, including myself. It'd be great for that to happen. Well, there's people working on it to make it happen, so hopefully, hopefully we do get there. Yeah.
Scott (01:39):
So tell me a little bit about how many papers were presented this week.
Corwin (01:44):
Yeah, so one of the things I have to, to first of all give thanks to is all the section committee chairs that and, and committees that reviewed all the abstracts that were submitted back in February, over 1300 abstracts submitted for this meeting. And of those 1,200-1,254 accepted abstracts that we had to be presented here. So, wow. Again, that's like our numbers. This is the most that we've had since ADSA has been meeting as a standalone society. Back above what we had prior to Covid and and doing quite well.
Scott (02:20):
Yeah. Excellent. You know, one of the other reasons we wanted to have you here is that you were also the organizer of the student contests last year. I wanna talk a little bit about that. Kind of give us an overview of the mechanics of that contest. How many participants did you have? The judging aspect of it. Can you kinda enlight us there? Right.
Corwin (02:42):
Yeah. So it's something that we, we did a little bit new this year that we, we didn't last year or, or we didn't do well at it last year. So all the students for at least the oral competition that entered into that, they also presented their work as part of the general session. So it gave them, so all the oral competitions were done online prior to the meeting. So that was the same, but they also all had the opportunity to present during the general session at the same time. So in the masters in PhD categories, there's approximately 12 to 13 contestants in each one.
Scott (03:21):
Okay. Ah, I was hoping there'd be more at,
Corwin (03:25):
Yeah, we, we there, there are some limitations to how many we can have enter into it just for, for time constraints. So it's, there's, there's some flexibility there, but around 12 to 13, somewhere in there is the number that we can generally handle quite well with the number of entrance into the competitions Yeah. For the, for the oral competitions.
Scott (03:47):
Yeah. Now you were a judge last year. Yeah. As you were Kari, I should have said, we've got Kari Estes with us here and you judge the posters this year. Yes. Yep. Yep. And last year, were you judging presentations? Do you remember?
Corwin (04:00):
Yes. I judged oral presentations last year.
Scott (04:02):
So what is it you look for in a good oral presentation?
Corwin (04:06):
One that the students are quite knowledgeable about what they're talking on. They're, they're, it's well rehearsed and it helps when they can do a, a, they'll have a recorded one, and then they have kind of a short and condensed one that they'll give to the judges so they've had time to practice it. Yeah. so that the ability to, to really engage with the judges to answer questions. And I, I really look for the soundness of their scientific, the science that they have too. That, to me, that's a big thing is, yeah, you can do a great job presentation, but yeah. Does it sound science? And that's, that's another one that I look for as a judge. Alright,
Scott (04:43):
Cool. And Kari, what about posters? What do you look for there?
Kari (04:47):
I'd say all the same things as Corwin said, but I also look at the poster, right? That's a big piece of it. I like the aesthetics as well as it laid out very easily. Can you follow it yourself if you were there alone? And the enthusiasm of the students for sure. Yeah. Can they, can they sell me their
Scott (05:09):
Research? Yeah. So now I know that we've already interviewed the two posters winners and you saw both of those, I'm assuming? Yes, and, and tell me what'd you like about those? What stood out? Both
Kari (05:22):
Of those? Definitely the rigor of the research for sure. For me personally, their posters were on point just how they were laid out and just how they looked. And they both had a very high level of passion and enthusiasm for their research. Yeah.
Scott (05:41):
Good deal. Clay, I forgot to introduce you actually, I didn't forget. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. You just neglected to. So any thoughts or comments before we wrap this up? No, I mean, the, the I, I looked through
Clay (05:56):
The posters and they were yeah, they were outstanding. So I know there were a lot of really good ones in the competition. So yeah, it's been a, been a pleasure to, to be able to see these,
Corwin (06:08):
I forgot to highlight that in 694 posters this year. Wow.
Scott (06:12):
And that's a record. Is it?
Corwin (06:14):
I think it would, I know it's the most that we've had in the last five seven years, I guess. Yeah. so it's a good number. Lot to look at. I enjoy looking at the
Scott (06:26):
Posters. Well, we've had a lot of activity back here, right. People are looking at the posters, so that's great. You know, core when there are a lot of benefits to being a participant in these co competitions, can you kinda expound on what those benefits might be and how that might help the students in the future?
Corwin (06:42):
Yeah, I think one of that Kari touched on a little bit earlier is selling their research and, and for students to recognize that implications of their research and be able to communicate that research and, and this gives them the experience to do so, hone those skills and saying, yeah, here are the, the key elements of my research. There's a lot of things that they have in there, but to identify, here's the key elements. Yeah. Here's the bottom line, here are the implications from that. So it gives them that experience to do that. And they learn a lot from it.
Scott (07:11):
Yeah. Yeah. Great comment. So, Clay, Corwin, Kari, thank you for joining us today and we'll see you next time here for the Real Science Exchange.
Scott (07:46)
We're here with the 2023 ADSA PhD presentation winner. Ursula, congratulations for the second time. And I say the second time, because you were here last year, you were also the master's presentation winner. So congratulations for both wins. Unfortunately, next year you won't be here because what they retire? After you win twice or is it just once for the PhD? It's once for the PhD. You're not gonna be able to be back with us again. Would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself, Ursula?
Ursula (07:55):
Thank you so much, Scott. It's my pleasure to be here again this year. I'm a third year PhD candidate in Dr. Contreras lab at Michigan State University. My research focuses on the effect of oleic acid on adipose tissue metabolism, especially during the postpartum period in dairy cows.
Scott (08:16):
Would you mind introducing your advisor?
Ursula (08:19):
I have an amazing mentor, and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. Andres Contreras.
Scott (08:25):
That's very nice. Andreas, tell us what about, what makes Ursula special? What makes her a two-time winner?
Andreas (08:33):
Well, she really can handle, manage audiences. She adapts to the background of the audiences and she connects with the audiences. So she's a great speaker, always has been, ever since she was an undergrad in the animal science program at MSU, too.
Scott (08:51):
Awesome. Ursula, tell us a little bit about the presentation you gave and the research that was behind it
Ursula (08:58):
For this year's project I worked with fat cells and adipocytes, so we extracted fat cells from the subcutaneous adipose tissue from Holstein cows and supplemented them with oleic acid and pulmonary acid. And then a combination mixture of both pulmonary and oleic acid to kind of resemble fatty acid supplements already found commercially. And we wanted to look at the effect of these fatty acids on lipid accumulation and also mitochondrial function. And we saw the oleic acid and the combination of pulmonary two oleic acid increased mi lipid accumulation in these cells, and it also improved mitochondrial function. Now, interestingly, pulmonary acid alone decreased mitochondrial function but when it was combined with oleic acid, that effect was attenuated.
Scott (09:54):
Mm. Interesting. Clay, do you have any exceptionally tough questions for Ursula
Clay (09:59):
I don't know about that, but
Ursula (10:02):
It's all right. I'm used to it from last year.
Clay (10:04):
So Ursula, what, so what are the, what are the implications of your research to a nutritionist or dairy producer?
Ursula (10:11):
So, we're trying to look at more mechanistically what's happening at the adipose tissue and endocyte level. We've seen that supplementing oleic acid with pulmonary acid, especially postpartum, these cows don't lose a lot of body weights. So we're trying to see what is happening at the adipose tissue level which that's what we found an increase in lipid accumulation and more enhanced mitochondrial function. And probably in the future we'll look more into maybe if there are other byproducts or products of oleic acid that would be more potent for supplementing the cows.
Clay (10:51):
So are adipocytes adipocytes, does it matter where you harvest these from?
Ursula (10:58):
Yes. so we harvested them from the subcutaneous depo. There are other depos, especially visceral fat, so mental mesenteric, peritoneal per, I don't know how to pronounce that,
Andreas (11:11):
Retroperitoneal retro.
Scott (11:14):
I can't say that.
Ursula (11:17):
And their immune function is different. Their inflammatory function is different. But we haven't really looked at that or the effect of lake acid on other depots.
Scott (11:31):
I'm curious if there's a genetic element to this. Would you anticipate that beef cattle or maybe even other breeds of dairy cattle, would their adipocytes behave the same way?
Andreas (11:42):
Well, in beef cattle, we have selected, you know, the breeds to, to be able to accumulate more intermuscular fat, which those are the EPO sites that are located with between the fibers in the fat. So we have selected those for marbling for years already. Probably the visceral fat, they might accumulate less the beef breeds compared to the dairy cows. Because we have selected, again for, you know, more shallow trunks, more shallow body in bodies in the beef breeds than compared to the dairy cows. We always want those open rib cows. And usually when you have more space, there will be more fat, cuz fat is kind of filling up the spaces. So those were really the differences depending on the type of animal, the breed, and the purpose, if it's a dairy or a beef type of animal.
Scott (12:39):
Yeah, makes sense. Clay, anything else? No? All right. Congratulations.
Ursula (12:46):
Thank you so much.
Scott (12:47):
Yeah, I. Excellent. Two time winner. What, what's your future look like? Where do you plan on what do you plan on doing once you graduate?
Ursula (12:56):
I still have a couple years until I graduate, but I'm leaning more towards industry and doing research within the industry. I love academia and I've really enjoyed my time in academia. But I think I have a lot of potential and a lot of opportunities in the research industry, especially the dairy
Scott (13:15):
Industry would a hundred percent agree. And once you, when you get your resume updated, please forward that to Dr. Clay Zerman. That's right. All right. Thank you very much. Thanks for joining us tonight. Thank you so much. Congratulations again.
Scott (13:54)
Welcome back. We're here with the masters poster winner, Corienne Gammariello and her advisor, Ben Enger. So congratulations, first of all, Corienne. I'm gonna start with you Ben. Ben, what makes Corienne special? What,
Ben (13:46):
Oh, that's a good question. One of the things that Corienne is really exceptional about is just her can-do attitude and her infectious enthusiasm for things. It's a beacon that shines pretty bright in the lab. And you know, just us talking here, you've probably seen that bubbly personality. It's important to have that when it comes to doing research and being able to get over the bumps and hills, which there has been a lot of in her project. So most people would be deterred by unexpected results that deviate from everything, and she seemed to thrive there. So that's, that's pretty unique in a grad student that I'd say. so especially a master's student.
Scott (14:30):
Yeah. Great answer. Corienne, I'm gonna turn the tables. Tell us about Ben. What, what do you appreciate about him?
Corienne (14:36):
I would say Dr. Ans taught me a lot about passion and how it shines through your work. I think he really cares about what he does. You can tell that he thinks about it all the time.
Scott (14:51):
I think he cares about his students as well.
Corienne (14:53):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he does. And it's just been such an inspiration to be studying under him and to see how that carries through his work and his success. Yeah.
Scott (15:02):
Yeah. Nice comments. Appreciate that. Why don't you tell us about your poster and what made it special?
Speaker 9 (15:09):
Hmm.
Corienne (15:11):
Well, I would say the methods that we used were pretty unique. We used formalin, fixed staph reus, so dead bacteria, and we were able to elicit an immune response of an utter half. And we used a split utter design model too. So we were comparing between inflammation and the same cow, but the other half just had saline. It was just a really unique model because we were able to measure metabolism changes and changes in the gland locally. Okay. And it was all about mammary gland metabolism. And I think, I think the model that we used was really cut out to be able to measure that. Well.
Ben (15:48):
So, Corienne, what was the question you were really trying to answer with some of this? So you, you said you had a split utter design and you're, you infused staph aureus that was killed. But I mean, what's your general overall picture of what you're trying to get at? So you're looking at some instances of potentially mammary gland metabolism, but I mean, why is that important? What's the bigger picture that you've been fussing with for probably almost a year and a half having experiment after experiment? What, what's that general topic that we've been looking at?
Corienne (16:18):
I would say simply why does mastitis decrease milk yield and alter milk components? But going further into the research, I would say, how does mastitis affect blood substrate utilization of the mammary gland during mastitis?
Clay (16:36):
So did you see a reduction in milk yield? No. In this No,
Corienne (16:40):
We didn't. No, we didn't. When we saw changes in lactose and protein and lactate in our milk samples. Oh, yeah.
Clay (16:46):
Yeah. Is that typical with mastitis to see those changes in the milk components?
Corienne (16:52):
Yeah, you would expect to see decreased lactose decreased protein general, like long-term, I guess you could say. We were looking at the initial response, so we saw an increase, but also changes in fat, but it, yeah, we didn't see the changes in milk yield. We were really trying to get there too. But
Ben (17:10):
That was, that was one of the challenges of going, Hey, we wanna look at this. Let's start developing a system where we can elicit a milk yield response and it never materialized. And like I said, those hurdles of unexpected results that would defeat a lot of people and going, wait, we had somatic cell counts go up to 3 million and no milk killed response. That was very, very hard for us to wrap our head around. And it's, it's been fun to work through that question and problem with Corey.
Scott (17:42):
Yeah. So what are the next steps with the research?
Ben (17:47):
Huh. Get more money to keep going. What we're trying to do is kind of build on this and start looking at that immediate response, which is what Corey did, where we're looking at you know, the initial infiltration and recruitment of all those immune cells, and how does the mammary gland cope and adapt to have that flexibility to maintain milk yield, and then see if we can finally get there with a milk yield reduction. And when that milk yield reduction results, where did those substrates that would've normally gone to milk synthesis, where did they go? You know, that question of immune cell comp competition, it's not a new thing, but I really think it has a tremendous amount of pance to why we see that milk yield loss, you know, those immune cells, they're pretty glycolytic. Well, what's the biggest driver of milk volume? Lactose, that's all
Clay (18:46):
Glucoses all. So, how much did lactose percentage change in these cows? Do you remember?
Ben (18:55):
About three-tenths of a percent. That was insane. Yeah. And it was a little less than we were anticipating, but the important thing to realize here is it's a sterile bolus. If we put e coli in there, it dropped, like, man, partially because the e coli are chewing up the lactose. And so that was a big deal for this study.
Scott (19:13):
So Corienne, you're a master's student now. What's your plans after graduation?
Corienne (19:18):
I'm going to get my PhD at the University of Calgary with Dr. Deba.
Scott (19:23):
Oh, excellent.
Corienne (19:24):
Yeah, but I'm not staying with mastitis. I'm gonna be looking at feet now. Digital dermatitis. Yeah. And genetics. So I'm, I'm switching it up a little bit. Yeah. But staying with the dairy cows.
Scott (19:36):
Yeah, we're good for you. You know, I unfortunately did not announce at the beginning of this that you are from the Ohio State University, so I had to get that back in there. And so we wish the best for you. Good luck. And thank you for joining us today. Thank you.
Corienne (19:50):
Thank you for this opportunity.
Scott (19:51):
So we're here now with Richard Lobo. Richard is the winner of the PhD poster contest. Congratulations, Richard. So Richard, why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about your poster content and implications for the industry. Yeah, sure.
Richard (20:15):
So the poster that I was presenting yesterday was using, trying to replace soybean milk with algae. So we used two different algae species chlorella and spirulina. And then this was a follow up experiment from batch culture experiment that we did. So we evaluated different diets and levels of replacement. We saw that replacing a hundred percent of soybean meal maybe is not a good idea because it could reduce therum, no fermentation. Then for this follow-up experiment, we started doing a dual flow, continuous cultures fermentor trial using 50% of replacements. Usually most of the experiments done with algae, they use algae as a supplement. In this case, we are trying to use as an ingredient, as a replacement for soybean meal. So it was a great amount of the algae that we used. So we saw some of the main takeaways from the experiment is that there, the feral fermentation can vary according to the algae species that we are using in the diet.
Richard (21:25):
And in this specific case, chlorella was better comparing to spirulina just because we could reduce the amount of protein that was degraded in the rumen during ruminal fermentation, which would improve the nitrogen metabolism of the ruminal fermentation. However, we still have to do a follow-up experiment because we don't know yet if that protein that was not degraded in the rumen is going to actually be degraded later on in the AONE and be absorbed. So we still in the process for understanding better how to use those protein sources on the diet of dairy cow.
Clay (22:06):
Mm. Okay. So how does the protein degradation of the two algae species compare to soybean meal?
Richard (22:18):
So actually it was not different. It was kind of like similar, the protein degradation, just when we compare the two algae species, chlorella was lower.
Clay (22:28):
Okay. Do you know, does the amino acid profile differ between those algae species and soybean meal?
Richard (22:38):
They differ a little bit, but algae source there a lot used on human nutrition. There is not a lot of research on amino acid profile on algae four dairy. But for human nutrition, it's a good source of essential amino acids. So for dairy, it should be kind of the same. There is a lot of essential amino acids that we, the animals, need in there. And then maybe the reduction on the degradation of those protein in the rooming could be good because then those essentials is going to reach the abooma, maybe be absorbed later on.
Clay (23:23):
How does the protein content of the algae species compare to soybean?
Richard (23:29):
All right. So soybean meals is around, like 45, or something like that. Those algae that we are using, they were between 60 and 70, so it's a little bit higher. So it's a really, because it's a cell pretty much, right. So they have a higher content of protein. In this case of, in the case of this experiment, we did using the lipid dated algae sources just to avoid any kind of lipid interaction with proteins or effects of the lipids in the, in the experiments, because we're, since we were looking at the protein content, we prefer to avoid any kind of confounding effects with lipids.
Clay (24:08):
So what, what would the lipid content of the lippids if it wasn't if it wasn't the oil?
Richard (24:14):
All right. It depends of the algae source, but it could breach up to 15 or almost 20% of the al content biomass. Yeah. Actually there are some o productions that they use for production of oil, for extraction of oil. So yeah, it's a great amount.
Scott (24:35):
Richard Dero, a lot of participants in the, and the poster contest. What was it about your poster, your presentation, your research that allowed you to stand out and be the champion?
Richard (24:48):
All right, that's a hard question to answer. I dunno. I think I had a good interaction with the, with the judges and with people in there. So the poster was like, with a lot of people all the time. And then the judge, when they come, they ask a lot of questions, and I think I answered well. So I don't know, maybe
Scott (25:11):
That would've been my guess. I think you're very articulate. You have a very good way of explaining thank you. Your research. And I was kind of curious, is there any design elements of a poster that would stand out? Any advice you'd give for next year's participants?
Richard (25:26):
I think like, use of images and figures that could be really helpful. Like use like glass you know, text and those kind of things, because I think whenever you have like figures, it's more interactive so you can show the, the, the, the, your results and everything and your design. I think figures are a really good strategy to interact with people. And at least for me, I'm a visual person, so I really enjoy like seeing and I understand better whenever I see like a picture or something. Yeah.
Scott (25:59):
Yeah. Very well said. So Richard, what, what's the future look like for you? What, what are your future plans?
Richard (26:05):
All right, so I'm graduating like, on summer and defending my PhD like in two weeks. Thank you. So I'm applying for some jobs in the industry right now, so yeah, I'm looking forward to join the industry force on dairy science.
Scott (26:21):
Yeah. Awesome. Well, listen, I, if I were you, I'd give your resume to this gentleman right of here. We're always looking for talent and young people, and you certainly fit the bill. Thank you. So congratulations on your win today and best of luck for you in the future.
Scott (26:34):
All right. Thank you, Richard.
Scott (26:43):
Welcome back everyone. I'm here with Luke Quian and Connor McCabe. They're the president and vice president of GSD here at the ADSA this year. I'd like to start off with you, Luke, kind of give us a background. Tell us a little bit about yourself. I know you're from Cornell University, but tell us a little bit about yourself and your role as president of the GSD.
Luke (27:03):
Sure. Currently I'm a PhD candidate at Cornell University. My work has been focused on developing predictive models for dairy spotage, particularly in cheese and food milk. So using our models, dairy processors can predict, for example, how much should percentage of their milk will be spoiled at the end of shelf life. And the good thing about this type of models is that you, people can use it to test off different intervention strategies to see what effect it can bring to reduce the spoilage. And I'm enjoying GSD seeing two years ago when I became a vice president. Now my role with the president is mostly oversees all the events we're going to plan for the annual meeting, as well as different activities throughout the year.
Scott (27:48):
Yeah. And so what, what are some of those events that you have here at the, at the conference itself?
Luke (27:53):
We already had our social mixers, Sunday, in which we have trivia planned for this at this brewery. I also organized this entrepreneurship workshop yesterday. Okay. We invited four speakers and they're from different direct companies and, but they are entrepreneurs at the executive level, but they're at different level of different, their companies are different at different stages of their career. Oh, oh, yeah. So our student can learn to outside the lab what skills they need to be entrepreneur.
Scott (28:29):
Cool. So, Connor, this is your second time on the podcast. You were here last year as vice president, soon to be president, and gonna be passing that baton sometime tomorrow. I hear before we get started, I want you to give a little bit of background on yourself, but before you do, can you tell us what GSD stands for and kind of their greater role here at the ADSA?
Connor (28:52):
Absolutely. So grad, those GSD stands for Graduate Student Division. So we're the graduate student portion of the meeting. You know, we have about 1600 people here attending ADSA as a whole, but 400-5500 of those participants are graduate students. And graduate students, of course, are the ones who are all doing the work, putting in the hours, being at the farm, being in the lab over the weekends, and helping further and advance their science along the way. And we know that scientific presentation is a big piece and big important reason for students to come here towards the meeting. But, you know, there's equal benefit and opportunity through networking, career development, professional pieces and such throughout the year that we look to be part of the GSD and help include and improve the student experience here at the mean. So it's not just coming here for present science, but you're also meeting your fellow scientists who are gonna be leading the dairy industry coming after here, future share academics and the future members of the
Scott (29:45):
Industry. Connor, I've known you for a couple years. I know your background. Would you mind sharing, though, with the, in with our audience a little bit about who Connor is and, and what Connor's all about?
Connor (29:53):
Certainly. So Connor McCabe is a third year PhD candidate now at UC Davis. I work with Dr. Frank Lerner. So working on environmental methane, nitrogen emissions from, from dairies, but we can feed cows change on farms to reduce those set of emissions. And it's an exciting, super interesting place to be in California with a lot of stakeholders, of course, interested in our work, kind of where environmental things all start and where they're gonna percolate throughout the US throughout the rest of the world. So, extremely interesting place to be. My involvement with ADSA-GSD began when I pursued my master's degree at Purdue University back in 2019. And then started firstly with being involved in leadership last year, the 2022 meeting in Kansas City where it was on GSD production director have served as vice president this last year. And then we'll continue on in the president my last year this, this next year for our, for our meeting coming up 2024 in West Palm Beach. And that's been my cycle as I hopefully just have a couple years left, left of graduate school and, and concluding my, my educational career to this point.
Scott (31:01):
Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about your role as vice president and then how's that gonna change as when you become president
Connor (31:08):
As vice president? So a lot of the pieces have been, been working on was, was mainly committee works with my, my thing this past year was working on career development for the graduate student division. So thinking about creating webinars for students to take part in. Luke did an excellent job in helping lead some of those, put 'em together on the food side as well as creating a discussion, a round table session that we'll have this afternoon between folks who are just finished outta their PhD within five, 10 years of their PhD. And hopefully spread some knowledge, interesting advice for those graduate students looking into the job market in the next year or so and what, what they can be on from there. Cuz I think it's, there's just as much benefit to learn about the greatest and newest dairy science that's happening here, as well as the opportunity to learn about how, how that career changes and, and you start making some real money and, and the hours are a little bit more reasonable. So what else? There's a, there's a whole bunch we don't, we, we still don't know about once we cross that, cross that path, but that's, that's part of the, the pieces that we've been involved in. And next year as president, we'll, we'll be more into o oversight and helping coordinate pieces is, this first year was mainly to me to understand what, what was all happened on, and then next year we'll hopefully be able to take with it and run with it to, to put on another great meeting
Scott (32:27):
Next year. Yeah. Sounds good. Luke, I'm sure you've been a good role model for Connor. What kinds of things have you, have you kind of counseled him on as, as in preparation for becoming president next year?
Luke (32:40):
Well, I think communication is key. Yeah. We have to make sure the whole committee that the offices are in the same page for everything and always keep track of the things. So have an agenda throughout the year to prepare. So make sure for all types of events we know what time, what deadline we're going to meet. Yeah. Yeah. But I think Connor, already is already doing good job. I'm not worried about him. Right.
Scott (33:09):
Good deal. Good to hear.
Connor (33:10):
Good to hear.
Scott (33:12):
So Luke, what's the future look like for you? What's your plans after Cornell?
Luke (33:17):
My plan after Cornell is still Cornell. Okay. I'm going to stay as a postdoc to continuing to do the exciting research I'm currently on. Yeah. Yeah. But I hope I can stay connected to GSD as well to advertise my research and see what impact it can make.
Scott (33:36):
Excellent. Connor, what about you? What's the future look like for you?
Connor (33:39):
So I have a couple more years, of course, till I'm finished up and, and finished up at Davis. I've been really interested in, you know, working with supply chains and thinking about how we can reduce the environmental impact of dairy livestock production to, to actually make, make change. You know, we have some really cool science happening out here, but much of that science is locked into academic or professional settings. And thinking about how we can actually make that impact on farms to, to, to, you know, help reduce the environmental impact production and so that we can make, you know, great, great environmental outcomes at, at the producer level. So working, whether that's, you know, with like a retailer group or agriculture industry member on that front, that, that's kind of what I'm interested in right now, but still, still a couple years to explore and see what will be available when, when I finish on up. So, yeah.
Scott (34:28):
Good. Clay, we've met a lot of very sharp and talented people this week. It's really amazing the industry's in very good hands, but these two gentlemen are at, they're at the top of the heap, right? Gentlemen, I want to thank you for joining us today. You've been excellent guests. Also want to thank our loyal listeners for joining us. Once again, I hope you learned something. I hope you had some fun and hope to see you next time here at The Real Sense Exchange, where it's always happy hour and you're always among friends.
Speaker 14 (34:56):
We'd love to hear your comments or ideas for topics and guests. So please reach out via email to anh.marketing@balchem.com with any suggestions and we'll work hard to add them to the schedule. Don't forget to leave a five star rating on your way out. You can request your Real Science Exchange t-shirt in just a few easy steps, just like or subscribe to the Real Science Exchange. And send us a screenshot along with your address and t-shirt size to anh.marketing@balchem.com. Balchems Real Science Lecture Series of webinars continues with ruminant focused topics on the first Tuesday of every month. Monogastric focused topics on the second Tuesday of each month, and quarterly topics for the companion animal segment. Visit balchem.com/realscience to see the latest schedule and to register for upcoming webinars.