Barbara Wadsworth has been named a recipient of the Advanced Comfort Technology, Inc. Dairy Systems Management Fellowship in the Animal and Food Sciences Department at the University of Kentucky. This one-of-a-kind program combines leading university research with practical experience in the field. Wadsworth will develop extensive on-farm research projects to study dual chamber cow waterbeds (DCC Waterbeds) in collaboration with the University of Kentucky Department of Animal and Food Sciences under Dr. Jeffrey Bewley, assistant extension professor.

Wadsworth is a 2007 graduate of Purdue University with a major in agricultural economics and a minor in animal sciences. She has worked as a co-herdsman for Arethusa Farm in Litchfield, Connecticut, from January 2008 to August 2009. This fall, she relocated to Kentucky to continue furthering her experiences as an animal scientist as she pursues a master’s degree in Animal and Food Sciences.

Wadsworth has an extensive background in the dairy industry and grew up working on her family’s hobby beef farm while raising replacement heifers in Hiram, Maine. She gained insight and knowledge into the dairy industry from two summer internships with Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, Maine, and Arethusa Farm.

During her undergraduate studies, Wadsworth was actively involved in student organizations such as the Dairy Club, Farm Management Club and Alpha Xi Delta sorority. She also worked at Purdue's Animal Science Research Dairy Farm. Additionally she participated in study abroad programs, through which she visited China in May 2005 and spent 2006 spring semester in Uppsala, Sweden. During her last year of school she was a member of the Purdue University Dairy Challenge Team and Purdue University Dairy Judging Team where she was an All-American and won the Guernsey division at World Dairy Expo. PD

—From Advanced Comfort Technology news release