STORY BY EMILY BENNIGSDORF
VIDEO BY MICHAEL TURNER
The Department of Agriculture at Fort Hays State University opened a course to students in the spring of 2018. Topics in Agriculture: Artificial Insemination is a course offered to students who would like to learn more about artificial insemination (AI) in all animals.
The course offers students the opportunities to ask questions with experts from Select Sires and learn about the anatomy to perform the task on their own. Artificial insemination is the action of breeding an animal without the act of intercourse.
“The artificial insemination course is taught on the goals of educating students on a topic that they don’t know about and making sure they are performing this process correctly,” said Shawn Roy, a representative of Select Sires.
The Agriculture Department on campus is a hands-on learning experience from the start of a students’ freshman year to their final year — which made this course a perfect fit.
Dr. Robert Keener has taken the job of advising the students during the class. The course is run by Roy, who is the area sales manager from Select Sires. During the course, students must properly load an artificial insemination gun with a straw of semen and be able to pass the gun through part of the reproductive system to the desired location three times before passing the course.
“The most challenging part of this course is getting students to visualize the reproductive tract with their hand,” Keener said. “There is no way to see exactly what that cow or heifer may look like on the inside, so teaching students to find their landmarks, like the cervix, inside of that animal is the hardest part of this class. The hands-on application of what we have been talking about from watching a PowerPoint to getting them in the animal, that transition is challenging.”
The course is challenging, and it takes a strong-willed person to learn how to find objects that a student can’t see.
“The most difficult part of this physical process is having students who think it will be easy when they practice on the tracts on the table,” Roy said. “When the students get their arms in the animals, they tend to get lost, and so most of them mentally have issues. Most of the time, what we find is that they can find the tract just fine; they just don’t realize they are holding the reproductive tract.”
The majority of the students who take the course will be taking the education back to their own operation in hopes of expanding or improving their herds.
“We only AI our replacement heifers that we plan to keep and the ones we plan to sell (as bred heifers). The total we AI each spring is around 170 to 200 head,” said Keena Schweizer, a senior studying animal science.
The course is able to offer students knowledge about the reproductive tract inside beef cattle, which can expand the education, possibly leading to pregnancy checking their cattle.
Once the cattle have become pregnant a few months later, typically a veterinarian will check to see if the animal is bred or not.
“The main reason I took this course was to find a cheaper alternative instead of having a vet come out and preg check,” said Jacob Mettlen, a senior studying agronomy at FHSU.
The goal of having hands-on classes on campus is to have students learning how to accomplish tasks at home when they graduate.
When thinking about taking the course, it is advised that students take Reproductive Physiology of Domestic Animals, as well as Anatomy and Physiology of Domestic Animals due to the knowledge of the tracts and anatomy taught between the courses.
“A lot of what we have been doing in repro class has been reiterated here, and it makes a lot more sense when you are able to be in the cows and find the cervix as the main target,” Schweizer said. “Once you find the cervix, you can find anything in that animal. Being able to memorize your target and feel what it is, every cow is different. Heifers are much smaller, and cows tend to have a larger cervix just because they have had calves.”
The course has opened more questions from students and has gotten students talking about topics they are learning.
“My veterinary training has helped me watch the students to know when they are picking up the content and if they are able to find the landmarks inside of the animal,” Keener said. “Body language is key when working in a setting like this because it will tell you who understands what they are trying to do, as well as who is able to pass the gun.”
Watching the student’s eyes while they try and manipulate inside of the animal will tell the instructors which students are understanding where they are, and hopefully they will be able to help the ones who can’t seem to make it through all of the cervix rings, Keener said.
The course has filled up quickly both semesters and has grown into one of the more-desired courses to take within the department.
