Amber Terhaar Pullman, Washington amberterhaar@vandals.uidaho.edu Lab Technician, Bio Tracking

Please describe your agricultural background.
Growing up, I spent a lot of time on my grandparent’s small wheat and barley farm in Northern Idaho. Once I graduated from high school, my agricultural education expanded immensely at Washington State University and the University of Idaho. My first experience with dairy was working with cows on a feed trial at the Washington State University Dairy.
After the trial was over, my duties on the farm expanded. They consisted of every day dairy chores like feeding calves, cleaning pens, moving cows, milking, fresh cow work, breeding, hoof trimming and anything else that needed to be done. In 2009, I also competed as a member of the University of Idaho Dairy Challenge Team at the Western Regional contest in Visalia, California, and the national event in Syracuse, New York.

What education are you bringing with you to this position?
As a recent graduate from the University of Idaho, I bring to BioTracking a Bachelors of Science degree in Animal Science with an emphasis on Dairy, along with 5 years work experience at the Knott Dairy Center (KDC) at Washington State University.
I am also a 2009 alumnus of the Southern Great Plains Dairy Consortium (SGPDC), which is held in Clovis, New Mexico. This is a 6-week program which attracts students and professors from all over the U.S.

What previous positions have you held?
This is my first position since graduation from college.

What are your new responsibilities?
My position is a laboratory technician with BioTracking. Specific responsibilities include preparing blood samples and performing the first of the two-day steps in the BioPRYN blood-based pregnancy test, as well as the Bovine Viral Diarrhea assay. This includes organizing, centrifuging and plating the blood samples and ear notches for analysis.
I also prepare reagents and manufacture BioPRYN plates that are needed to support our lab in Moscow, our nearly thirty affiliate laboratories and the research section of BioTracking.

What territory will you cover?
I am located at the home office of BioTracking in Moscow, Idaho, and currently do not travel. However, we receive samples from all over the country, so in a sense we cover a large territory!

What excites you most about working in your new role?
The most exciting part about my position is being able to appreciate and understand the BioPRYN test and how it can be applied on the farm. I am familiar with the whole process from collecting a blood sample from a cow to the final report in the producer’s email inbox and all the work and steps in-between. This is a pretty remarkable advance in technology.
After working in the lab for four short months, I can say that it feels good to represent a good, honest product I believe in. It is also really fascinating to be a part of such a great team, which is sincerely working hard to deliver a reliable product that is made solely to help the producer. I am lucky to be a part of that.

How will you be of most help to producers in your region or area of expertise?
From my training in college, I believe I can relate to producers by fully understanding the important role that reproduction plays in large animal agriculture. I understand how important it is to get cows bred and even more importantly to accurately detect pregnancy, all in which needs to be cost effective to the producer.
I can share my knowledge and experience with producers which range from drawing blood to setting up and implementing a synchronization program for the herd. From my understanding of bovine physiology I can help producers understand how BioPRYN fits their management strategies.

What’s your best story from the first day on the job?
On the first day at the job, I was entering client information into our customer database and I came across a dairy that looked really familiar. Then I noticed their address was Clovis, New Mexico. I instantly got really excited because I had toured this dairy a handful of times while I was in New Mexico for the SGPDC. As time goes on and I get more familiar with our client base, I recognize more and more producers, not only from my trip to New Mexico, but from other dairy tours. The dairy industry truly is a tight knit family.

Why did you choose this company?
I chose to work at BioTracking for many reasons, the most important of which is it plays such a positive role in developing new technology for animal agriculture. Being a dairy major, I wanted to work with dairy producers and help them maximize efficiency and profit on their farms, and BioTracking works towards that same goal.
BioTracking is also growing and I wanted to be a part of the future of this company and be able to share my ideas and my experiences to help promote BioPRYN.

What goals would you like to accomplish while in this position?
1. To keep our assay accurate and consistent for our producers. There is error in any test, but I want to ensure our clients that I am doing everything that needs to be done in order for our test to run properly and accurately.
2. Many clients ask about other tests, so I would like to help install additional assays into the lab and possibly run them.
3. To talk to customers more and help implement BioPRYN into their herd.