Up at UK, Down on the Farm
For more than 100 years, the College of Agriculture has encouraged hands-on learning. If students can earn money at the same time, that’s even better. Those who work at the College’s research farms gather eggs for poultry research, cover blueberries to protect them from birds, plant horticultural crops. They milk dairy cows at odd hours, maintain turf plots, even mix highly complex, custom feed rations for beef cattle. Book learning may fade, but many years later students will remember life on the farm.
Cassandra (Cassie) Huckeba, from Bagdad, Ky., milked cows at the Coldstream Dairy Research Farm in Fayette County for three years. 
She graduated this past spring. When Huckeba moved to Kentucky about nine years ago, she had no farming experience, but she joined her high school FFA program because her friends were in it. Now, she’s looking forward to teaching agricultural education.
Jessica Brownfield (above and at left), an animal sciences major from Burlington, mixes feed from several sources into an automated feed wagon, then distributes the feed to beef cattle at the UK Animal Research Center.
This day, Todd Miller’s task was to move beef cattle into the research barn for exams and vaccinations at the beef unit at the UK Animal Research Center in Woodford County. He’s a biosystems and agricultural engineering major from Science Hill.
Sarah Buzogany, who is double majoring in sustainable agriculture and Spanish, takes the cultivating tractor through plots at the UK Horticulture Research Farm in Fayette County. The plots provide fresh produce during the 26-week growing season to shareholders in the community-supported agriculture program. Buzogany, who is from Arlington Heights, Ill., became interested in sustainable agriculture through her study of world food issues in the UK Honors Program.
Jessica Cole, a horticulture major from Lancaster, stakes down protective netting to keep birds out of the blueberries at the UK Horticulture Research Farm.
Kiefer Shuler, an art major from Bourbon County, plants peppers in raised beds for research trials at the UK Horticulture Research Farm.
Frank Berrry, an animal sciences major from Stanardsville, Va., gathers lambs to move them from the research barn to a nearby pasture at the UK Animal Research Center. Berry’s family has a beef cattle farm, but his curiosity about sheep turned into a job at the sheep unit, where he has worked for the past two years.
Joseph Hawkins, an animal sciences major from Versailles, feeds chickens at the UK Poultry Research Facility at Coldstream Farm.
Michelle Simon collects eggs at the UK Poultry Research Facility. She’s an animal sciences major from Alexandria.
Jordan Tischler, an animal sciences major from Miamisburg, Ohio, works in the swine unit at the UK Animal Research Center. Though Tischler doesn’t have a farm background, she loves animals. She became interested in working with swine after taking a course with Gary Cromwell.
Audra Monday,
an animal science/pre-vet major from Elizabethtown, works in the swine unit at the UK Animal Research Center in Woodford County.
