As part of a partnership with other universities in the state, Illinois State University’s Department of Agriculture hosted two students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) over the summer at University Farm.
Dr. Jennifer Earing ’03, assistant professor of agriculture at Illinois State, is the faculty mentor for the program. While Illinois State didn’t send any ag students out for this particular internship this year, Earing was a big part of the experience for interns Alyssa Brown and Emma Prybylski, both seniors, who left the familiar surroundings of Champaign to spend the summer in Lexington.
Sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Institute of Food and Agriculture for the Illinois Beef Experiential Learning and Industry Exposure (I-BELIEF) program, is a 10-week, paid summer internship. A total of 10 students are chosen through an application process and then assigned to work at one of the research farms run by Illinois State, UIUC, or Western Illinois University. Designed to promote collaboration between partner institutions, interns are assigned to farms run by universities other than the one they attend.
Production, research, and producer outreach are part of the experience. During the summer, interns work on the farm, assisting with day-to-day management of the animals. In addition, each intern is responsible for conducting a research project, guided by their faculty mentor. They also gain experience in technical writing when they summarize, publish, and present their research. Personal development activities and attending professional meetings round out their internship experience. In addition to earning a stipend, they are provided with housing.
“Every year, we have a pool of applicants—usually two to five ISU students apply—and one or two are assigned to a farm that’s not their home institution,” Earing said. “The idea is to expose students to different people and practices at different schools, to help them build their experience, knowledge, and professional network.”
Lauren Neuleib ’22 is in her second year of a master’s degree in animal science at Illinois State. While studying under Earing, Neuleib helps her with teaching and research efforts. This summer, that meant helping the interns navigate the farm, research laboratory, and their first research projects. Earing called her “instrumental to the project.”
“It was good for Lauren to experience teaching and mentoring,” Earing said. “And it was good for the interns to work with someone who is more their peer.”
Neuleib thought it was interesting to see the interns learn about livestock, but she really enjoyed seeing them get into the nuances of grasses and forages with the sheep.
“To see them get excited about grasses, when not many people would, was pretty cool,” she said.
Neuleib also appreciated the work ethic of Brown and Prybylski.
“They definitely earned it,” she said.
Brown and Prybylski roomed together and worked every day from 7 a.m.-3p.m. and put in some overtime for a 40-hour week, five days per week. They finished on July 31.
“We lived in dorms that ISU provided, and we drove an ISU vehicle up to the farm,” Prybylski said. “We knew each other from a physics class (at UIUC), but not well.”
Brown liked that the program sent her to Illinois State and thought the overall experience was important, especially as a female in a male-dominated line of work.
“I like that we’re helping foster relationships between the participating schools,” she said. “And since it’s the beef industry, and more males are involved, this is designed to attract underrepresented groups like females.”
Brown also welcomed the opportunity to work with a variety of animals, especially since livestock at UIUC is spread out on different properties.
“At the ISU Farm, I really enjoyed the fact that the swine, sheep, and cattle are all at the same place,” she said.
One of Prybylski’s favorite experiences was taking care of cattle.
“A cool part of the internship was that we were responsible for feeding the cows every morning at 7,” she said. “There’s close to 80 cows, so we’d load all the feed into a feed wagon. I loaded it, and Alyssa drove the tractor. And we got pretty good at it.”
“The idea is to expose students to different people and practices at different schools, to help them build their experience, knowledge, and professional network.”
Dr. Jennifer Earing
For the research portion of the summer, Brown’s study is ongoing. She is evaluating the digestibility of pennycress meal in cattle.
Pennycress is an oilseed that typically has been viewed as a weed. Recent interest in pennycress is in its use as a cover crop. Current agronomic research at Illinois State is evaluating its application as a cover crop in a traditional corn and soybean rotation. Pennycress seed can be harvested and processed for use in biodiesel production. Pennycress meal is a byproduct of that processing and may prove to be a valuable protein source for livestock diets. For her research, Brown collects rumen fluid from a cannulated steer, brings it into the lab, and sets up a digestion simulation to evaluate how well the pennycress meal is digested.
Prybylski’s research evaluated rotational grazing of sheep on various pasture mixes. Rotational grazing practices can be used to increase pasture productivity and quality. While requiring more intensive (daily) management, producers can optimize forage production, and thereby reduce the cost of additional feedstuffs needed to support the flock. Prybylski’s research evaluated two different mixtures of forage species.
“I checked overall body weight and condition scores of the ewes,” she said. “I was checking to see which forage species they were eating more of and doing internal parasite counts by checking their fecal samples.”
She also collected forage samples to estimate forage yield and measure nutrient density and recorded how long it took for the sheep to consume the available forage.
Both interns had high praise for Earing for providing them with ideas, guidance, and lending her expertise while allowing them to work independently. Earing said the experience sometimes sparks a desire for more education for some participants as it did for her.
“As an undergrad I worked in a research lab for an animal science professor, and it piqued my interest in graduate school,” she said.
Earing said most students don’t come from a strong beef or animal background, and the internship is their first time working around large livestock. The daily experience builds confidence, she said.
“It’s great to see how much they change over the course of 10 weeks,” Earing said.
Brown is from Tomball, Texas, and Prybylski grew up in suburban Seattle. Neither had farming backgrounds, but they were interested in cattle and large animals. Both are now applying to veterinary school.
“One of the unique aspects of this internship is that besides completing a research project, the interns will also summarize the data, write an abstract, and present their work at the American Society of Animal Science (Midwest Section) Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, next spring,” Earing said. “People from all over the world attend, so they will be presenting before an international audience in a professional setting. It’s a great experience for them.”
