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By Catherine Andreadis '22
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  • Animal Science
  • Dairy

The Cornell University Dairy Science Club (CUDS) held their 2022 Dairy Open House and Spring Classic Sale on March 18-19, after a three-year pause due to COVID-19. This was the first entirely student run event in years. Here, animal science major and CUDS co-sale chair, Isabel Hall ’23, reflects on the sale’s success and excitement for the next sale year.

What are CUDS goals for the Dairy Open House and Spring Classic Sale?

There are two main goals for these events. The first is that it serves as the primary fundraiser for our club. We fund national and international trips for students that expose them to a breadth of agricultural practices. For example, our club has taken trips to Italy to learn about dairy and farming practices in Europe, and in the coming weeks, we’ll be heading out to California to do the same. The money we raise from the CUDS Spring Classic sale lowers the cost barriers for students, allowing them to go on the national and international trips.  We’re proud that we can make learning about agriculture accessible to more students in this way.

The second goal is that we use the Open House as an opportunity to educate members and the greater Cornell community about the dairy industry! Our members and participating industry experts are eager to connect with members of the community and teach them about the wonderful world of dairy!

How many cows were sold at this year’s sale?

We had a great sale this year, selling 54 lots, including embryos and live cattle with an average selling price of $2,603.24 per lot. 45 cattle were at the sale that day, while the remaining lots were either embryos or younger calves that weren’t on site. We also had one lot that was what we call “absentia,” which means she wasn’t present for the sale. She wound up being our highest seller that day, selling at $22,500 to ST Genetics!

 

Can you describe the work that goes into bringing cattle in for sale?

My sale co-chair, Blake Wadsworth '23 and I reached out to farmers across New England and Wisconsin to see if they would be interested in contributing members of their herd to the sale. We both come from dairy farms, so we used our connections through farming, friends in agriculture and Cornell alumni to put together the line-up. We then work together as a club on the days leading up to the sale to care for the cows and prep them for the weekend ahead.

Overall, how well do you think the Open House went?

It went really well! The open house provides opportunities for us to show the greater Cornell community about the work we do in CUDS and about agriculture overall. Our public relations chairs, Megan Lamb ’22 and Danielle Marie DelConte ’22 did a fantastic job spreading the word. We had over 300 attendees on Friday night!

We had booths throughout the event space where people could learn about agriculture and a lot of students enjoyed interacting with the cows. People seemed to be really interested in what we were doing and it was great to have conversations with people that may not come from agricultural backgrounds.

 

What was this year’s biggest success?

The fact that this entire event was student run is a testament to our members’ commitment and enthusiasm for the agriculture industry. In the past, we worked with the NY Holstein Association to arrange the sale and the students simply cared for the animals. This year we took on the responsibility of arranging the sale and managing the necessary labor. It was a fantastic club bonding experience and it’s made this years’ success especially important to us. All the planning and hard work we’ve put in over the last few months really paid off. I’m excited to see how we can leverage what we’ve learned this year at next year’s sale.

 

Catherine Andreadis '22 is a student writer for the Cornell CALS Department of Animal Science.

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