About a month ago, the folks at Progressive Dairyman sent a survey to professors involved in teaching students in dairy science.

They wanted to know what makes for a well-prepared and successful student. As part of that survey, they provided us with images of three students involved in different activities and asked which student was most likely to succeed at our university.

Student 1 obviously has a lot of experience with dairy cows. To be honest, this student probably knows a lot more about pedigrees, cow families, fitting, showing and marketing cattle than I do. He probably comes from a dairy farm and has a solid foundation in dairy cattle husbandry and management. This student may become very active in the intercollegiate dairy cattle judging team or other institutionalized extracurricular activities. These activities can greatly enhance his college education, giving him an opportunity to travel and meet people outside of the classroom setting.

I enjoy working with these students. We can learn a lot from each other. Of course, we are seeing fewer and fewer students entering college with this type of background. There are a lot fewer dairy farm families now than just 20 years ago. This background can be a tremendous advantage to a student. These students already know the “language” of animal production and may have a working knowledge of nutrition, breeding and genetics. If he puts his experience to good use and is willing to embrace the scientific principles underlying dairy management, Student 1 can do very well academically.

Student 2 appears to be studying very hard. It is extremely important for any incoming student to realize that you must study hard to be successful academically. No matter how much experience Student 2 had when he came to campus, he is unfamiliar with most of the material that is presented in the classroom. He is bombarded daily with an unrelenting onslaught of factual material that he must commit to memory in a very short period of time. He will be challenged to analyze this information and use it to answer real-world problems. College is academic boot camp, so he must devote a lot of time to studying. Many students have difficulty with this.

College is also a time to develop socially. Unfortunately, for many different reasons, many students allocate excessive amounts of time to social activities at the expense of academics. This is particularly true in their freshman year. Student 2 seems to have mastered these, at least for the moment.

Everyone probably sees something different in Student 3. I see a student that is making an effort to pursue a learning opportunity outside of the conventional classroom (Student 2) and institutionalized extracurricular activities (Student 1). This is not to say students who devote themselves to classroom study or extracurricular activities will not succeed. We all know of many who have. However, I think it is important for a student to be well-rounded.

The picture of Student 3 really hits close to home for me. Here at the University of Kentucky, we offer a reproductive physiology course in which the students get to observe palpation, ultrasound, artificial insemination and embryo transfer. Unfortunately, we do not have enough cattle to permit all of the students (more than 60 per year) to palpate or breed cows. I tell students that if they have a particular interest in these skills, they can work with me on an individual or small group basis. About 3 to 4 percent of my students take me up on my offer.

This is only one example. We have had numerous students take advantage of similar opportunities in other courses, to help with ongoing research or to serve as undergraduate teaching assistants in our introductory courses. As an instructor, this is one of the most rewarding experiences I can have.

Something Student 3 has learned in a course has intrigued her. She wants to learn more. She wants to take it further. The classroom and textbook are not enough for her. She wants a hands-on learning experience. These opportunities may not always be easy to find, but, with just a little bit of persistence, I can assure you that they can be found.

Students that pursue these opportunities are extremely self-motivated. It has been my experience that these students excel academically and in the community after they have graduated. It may not be the experience itself that makes them successful. It seems just as likely that the student’s desire to pursue this type of opportunity is an indication of their character. Fortunately, many students have this characteristic and the college environment is the ideal place to encourage and cultivate it. Student 3 appears to be doing just that.

Obviously, successful students will combine characteristics from all three of these images. I have known many successful students that have been able to overcome a lack of farm experience by working hard and by taking advantage of all of the opportunities available. It has been my experience that students who pursue learning experiences outside of the classroom generally have their studying under control. Therefore, I believe that Student 3 is the most likely to succeed at our university. I’ve attended and/or taught at five universities. Student 3 would succeed at all of them. PD

Bill Silvia
Dairy Science Professor
University of Kentucky

“The other pictures are important, but Student 3 is reality, and you have to enjoy that part of the business.”
– Garth Searle, Land View Inc.

“How can you direct the day-to-day operations of your dairy if you haven’t done every job yourself? You can lead employees by example if they know you can and have done the things you expect them to do.”
– Rich Helzer, Fisher Pumps