For my final at the end of this semester, I decided to learn to sign a song. The song I picked is “You Raise Me Up” by Selah. So I’m going to show you guys something I learned here at Butler, hope you enjoy! :)

P.S. the intro to the song is a little long, and the video quality isn’t the best, but bear with me!

But this year, it is a teensy bit bittersweet.

Saturday night was the Butler Livestock Judging banquet. No, I’m not a judger, but I’m the most loyal tag-a-long/groupie/roomie/friend those guys have ever had I’m sure! So of course I was in attendance.

And naturally, I got to thinking about my time here. How I was this close to going to the community college 15 minutes from home because I had no reason to do anything different. But then Chris Mullinix said he could give me an ag scholarship, and I thought “Hey, what do I have to lose?” At the time, I had no idea that I had a whole new set of adventures and ‘family’ waiting for me that I would never trade for anything. I don’t think I will ever be able to fully thank Chris for giving me all that through a simple scholarship.

Butler and the instructors here have opened countless doors for me. Not only do I have a few more bridesmaids for my wedding, but the professional people I have met is unbelievable. One of those happens to be the former CEO of Tyson Foods, Greg Lee, who came to speak at the Ag Department’s open house. The Ag Ambassadors has been a tremendous organization to be apart of. Together, our group has not only educated the public about the school’s ag program, where their food comes from and agriculture in general, but we have accomplished our purposes while making memories we will never forget.

Never for one minute have I regretted my decision to attend Butler. I fully believe it has prepared me for my next steps in life. I am looking forward to interning with Osborne & Barr, an agricultural advertising agency, this summer in Kansas City. This fall, I will become a Wildcat at Kansas State University to major in Animal Science and minor in Spanish.

If there is one thing life has given me a first hand account of during my two years at Butler, it is that sometimes plans will change. But everything and everyone come into your life for a reason. So take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. Always look for the silver lining in the cloud. I’ll leave you with a quote that a dear friend told me one time, and I think it fits perfectly:

“If you get a chance- TAKE IT!
If it changes your life-LET IT!
No one ever said it would be easy, they only promised it would be worth it.”

• Must be a 6 member team.
• Must be available June 3 for the tourney at Riverfest in Wichita.
• Will last from 11a.m.- 4p.m.
• Deadline to sign up is Monday, May 9.

If more than one team enters, a contest will be held to determine who is more worthy.

See ya on the court.

And if you aren’t familiar with us, then you are missing out.

Basically, we are a group on campus that promotes agriculture through education and fun events. And last Tuesday evening, we got a strong case of intramural softball fever.

Softball is an activity that the ambassadors look forward to every year. Check out some pics from the event below!

Comment and let me know what you think Harry Potter fans!

 It’s just simply amazing what all we can accomplish by combining genetics, knowledge and technology. Almost mind-boggling at times even. What specifically I have on my mind is embryo transfer.

I mean, sure, there were many times that a farmer probably thought to himself, “If only there was a way to get more calves from this cow in her lifetime”, but who went through the trial and error to figure it out?

I’m sure a little research could answer this pressing question, but today we are simply going to talk about the process.

First, a teensy vocab lesson.

Donor- A female bovine of exceptional quality. This is typically a cow. Flushing heifers could potentially lead to breeding issues in the future.

Flushing- The process of collecting all the fertilized eggs from the Donor.

….I know, just stay with me here.

Estrus- A 12 hour window when the cow is in heat, or ovulating.

Estrous- The cycle as a whole, which lasts about 21 days. Note the similar yet different spellings of these words. There is a difference between the two.

Cystorelin- Hormone used to start the process over, or get the estrous cycle back to ‘square one’.

CIDR- Insert infused with progesterone. Read more about these puppies HERE.

Follicle Stimulating Hormone- Causes multiple eggs to be released during estrus. FSH for short.

Lutalyse- Shot that causes the cow to come into heat.

Angus- A breed. The black cow in the picture.

Hereford- Another breed. The red and black calf in the picture.

Setting up the Donor:

Day 1- Give a shot of Cystorelin and put the CIDR in the cow. Together, this will cause estrous to start over and hormone levels to raise so the female’s body think’s it is pregnant.

Day 5- Start FSH shots. 2 shots a day for 3 1/2 days. This causes multiple follicles to form on the ovaries, when there would typically only be one.

Day 7- Administer a shot of Lutalyse in addition to the FSH shots.

Day 8- Remove CIDR and give last FSH shot. The removal of the CIDR will drop progesterone levels and therefore kick-start estrus.

Day 9- Breed the cow 3 times. 1. At the start of heat. 2. 12 hours into heat. 3. 24 hours into heat.

This is Terry. He just became a Grandpa a few weeks ago. And he brought a Hereford cow to our place to get set up with ours.

One week later… An embryologist will ‘flush’ out all the fertilized eggs, or embryos. The average number collected is 6. The embryos can be put fresh into a recipient cow, or be frozen and stored in liquid nitrogen until ready for use.

Yes, reproduction techniques have come a long way, baby.

9 months later… Your babies are born! This is the rewarding part, when all your hard work pays off.

When you walk out into a pasture and see baby calves everywhere, you have one of those ’moments’ that reminds you why you are in the ag business. Why your pay check is largely determined by mother nature and Futures markets. Why you don’t get holidays or snow days. It reminds you why you love this way of life and that you wouldn’t trade it for anything.

First of all, I’m sure you are well aware there are different learning styles. No two people learn exactly the same- some can read a text and absorb it like a sponge. Others prefer a riveting discussion. Some can hear something and retain it forever. While there are those who must do it hands on in order to learn.

But which one are you? You can either A) take a stab in the dark and guess B) draw options out of a hat or C) take a quiz and find out!

Click on one of the links below to take a quiz.

http://homeworktips.about.com/library/quizzes/bl_lstylequiz1.htm

http://www.edutopia.org/mi-quiz

Hope these quizzes are helpful to you. What type of learner are you? And what are your favorite study methods?

1. Get some sleep! – It’s a little known fact that brains don’t like working without some decent sleep. So it’s important to get plenty of sleep and not stay up late cramming and working on those papers and big projects at the last minute.

2. Eat healthy – I know sometimes when I get stressed I tend to go for desserts like cookies and ice cream, but healthy snacks like fruits and veggies are the best way to go because they’ll energize you.

3. Exercise – You might not think you’ll have time to exercise much during these next few weeks, but exercise helps you focus and gives you additional energy. Plus you can always take a textbook to do some studying while you bike or walk on a treadmill!

4. Take breaks! – It’s super important that you take time to relax and have some fun, so take some mental breaks every now and then!

5. Prioritize don’t procrastinate – Okay so my guilty pleasure is definitely Facebook, but I know I’ll have to give it up in a few days in order to keep on track with everything I have coming up these next few weeks. Get organized and get your important tasks accomplished (such as those big projects and papers!), the sooner you get those done, the better!

Hopefully those tips will help you out, and good luck to everyone as we enter the dreaded end of the semester!

Spring time in Kansas brings one of my favorite things to do on the farm- burning pasture! There’s something about having a controlled fire burning up all the dead grass and watching it spread all over the pasture that is really intriguing to me.

The burning practice catches a lot of flack. But the good out weighs the bad.

• Kills unwanted/dead vegetation.
• Gives new, more nutritious grass a chance to grow.
• Cattle grazing have a healthier diet.
• Not putting chemicals into the ground to achieve same results.

This video will give you a chance to see what it looks like while the grass is burning.

As mentioned in the video, several factors must come into play. A few of these include:

• The wind can’t be too strong, or from the wrong direction.
• You must have enough dead grass to make it worth while. Green grass is too full of moisture and won’t burn.
• You need to have a water supply close by in case the fire starts to go the wrong direction.
• It never hurts to have too many people, rather than not enough, when dealing with fire.

Here is Flinton and Paul, our fire burning crew for the weekend. You can see that they are sitting on rakes. They are used to move the fire along the grass. On the back of Paul’s 4-wheeler is a water tank. Always good, just in case.

I just helped with the very end of burning this weekend because my sister’s prom was Saturday! So I went with my mom and cousin and watched her in the Grand March.

No, I’m not short. She’s just ridiculously tall.

 Her and her friends were sure looking Hot and reeeal Dangerous that night! (They think they are really intimidating, and we don’t burst their bubble.)

We hope you enjoyed the Butler Ag’s Open House last night! It was a great time of education, fellowship and friends.

Folks had the privilege of listening to Tyson’s former chief, Greg Lee. The ag students were treated to a more personal information/question session before the evening’s events got underway. Mr. Lee spoke his time in the meat industry, the changes he saw and events he experienced. He also answered questions from the crowed and was available all evening to chat one-on-one.

Classrooms were set up to showcase various aspects of the ag program and industry. Areas of focus were ag communications/journalism, by-products, grain/equipment identification and livestock judging. Students were present to conduct classrooms, answer questions, give tours and simply chat with the visitors.

The Ag Dept. would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of those who made the event possible. A special “Thanks’ goes out to American Ag Credit, who was a major sponsor for the evening. We hope everyone in attendance had as much fun as the Ag Dept did!

For more pictures from the evening’s events, feel free to visit Butler’s Flickr page HERE.