Farm & Ranch
Tarleton Partners With Texas A&M System To Expand Veterinary Program
FOR RELEASE: January 28, 2016
Texas A&M System to Extend Reach of Texas A&M
College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Culminating a seven-year plan, The Texas A&M University System today announced partnerships to expand veterinary education, research and undergraduate outreach into several regions of the state through four A&M System universities.
The partnerships are between the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVM) and West Texas A&M University, Prairie View A&M University, Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Tarleton State University.
In 2009, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board reported there was no need for a second veterinary school but that CVM could increase enrollment to meet future state needs. The study (http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/reports/pdf/1701.pdf) focused on the need to increase the number of underrepresented minorities entering the profession as well as enlarging the pipeline of rural-based veterinarians to better serve the livestock industry as well as deer and wildlife interests.
In response, the Texas A&M System began beefing up its agriculture programs at the four universities while planning a state-of-the-art veterinary teaching complex at College Station. With no state appropriation available for construction during the recession, Texas A&M invested $120 million from the Permanent University Fund.
The teaching complex, which opens this fall, allows CVM to accept more veterinary students and create the partnerships to encourage more underrepresented minorities and rural students, who are more likely to return to their home regions, to work as veterinarians in the state’s agricultural economy.
“Texas agriculture feeds and clothes the country,” said Chancellor John Sharp. “We will always need small-animal veterinarians to take care of our pets, but we also need more large-animal veterinarians helping to protect our state’s agricultural economy.”
All four of the A&M System universities have significant underrepresented minority student populations as well as unique animal science programs and ties to the livestock or wildlife industries in their regions:
· West Texas A&M operates its own feedlot in the Panhandle, a region that feeds a third of the nation’s beef and boasts expanding dairy and swine industries. The Beef Carcass Research Center and the Nance Ranch Teaching and Research Facility are located there.
· Tarleton State operates the state’s only university-based dairy as a public-private partnership and collaborates regularly with the dairy cattle industry. The university also has a Veterinary Technology program.
· Prairie View A&M’s International Goat Research Center, with more than 1,000 dairy and meat goats, is one of the largest, oldest goat research programs in the nation. It specializes in the areas of genetics, reproductive physiology, nutrition and veterinary health.
· Texas A&M-Kingsville’s Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute is the leading wildlife research organization in Texas. It also has a Veterinary Technology program with a new state-of-the-art facility.
“From our roots as an agricultural college, Tarleton has provided educational programs in animal health for many years. We operate the only university dairy in the state and have one of only two four-year Vet Tech programs in Texas,” said Dr. F. Dominic Dottavio, president of Tarleton State University. “Over the past 10 years, we’ve ranked in the top three among universities sending students to the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine. We are pleased to participate in this unique partnership that will help even more students reach their dream of becoming veterinarians.”
“This initiative is ultimately about service to our state,” said Texas A&M University President Michael Young. “It extends the reach of our highly-ranked College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences while also putting the prospect of a veterinary education on the radar of more students throughout Texas.”
Opening the new CVM teaching complex is key to extending the reach of veterinary education and research beyond College Station. While the state’s population has boomed, the size of the veterinary school remained virtually flat due to older, cramped facilities. The new facility will allow the CVM to meet the need for both the veterinary and livestock industries as the demand for veterinarians grows.
The new education complex will easily accommodate an initial increased class size of 20 to 30 new veterinary students each year. By providing new learning opportunities for students who attend the four A&M System universities, the CVM hopes to increase the number of applicants from those regions.
Toward that goal, the CVM intends to hire veterinary faculty initially to teach undergraduate courses, strengthen the curriculum and explore research partnerships with industry in each region. Eventually, as demand increases, the CVM will evaluate the need to offer some veterinary courses at sites other than College Station.
The CVM is in the process of hiring two faculty members to teach and conduct research at West Texas A&M. It also will be seeking appropriations to duplicate those efforts at Tarleton State, Prairie View A&M and Texas A&M-Kingsville.
This cost-effective, graduated approach to expanding veterinary education leverages the state’s assets to their highest and best use while being mindful of Texas taxpayers and following the guidance of the Coordinating Board study.
“The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences has served animal owners in Texas and beyond for 100 years,” said Dr. Eleanor M. Green, the Carl B. King dean of veterinary medicine. “We intend to expand our ability to respond to the needs of our diverse populations and to the needs of the veterinary profession by linking the vast strengths of Texas A&M across the state. This program puts boots on the ground where they are needed, as they are needed.”
About the Texas A&M University System
The Texas A&M University System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation, with a budget of $4.2 billion. Through a statewide network of 11 universities, seven state agencies, two service units and a comprehensive health science center, the A&M System educates more than 140,000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year. System-wide, externally funded research expenditures exceed $932 million and help drive the state’s economy.
About Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University – the flagship campus of The Texas A&M University System – is a tier one research institution. Committed to the values of its land-grant heritage, Texas A&M ensures accessible education for the people of Texas and the world. Its faculty-led research advances innovation for society’s challenges, and yields over $854 million in annual expenditures. Texas A&M is developing educated leaders of character dedicated to serving the greater good.
About the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Established in 1916, the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences is one of only 30 Colleges of Veterinary Medicine in the United States. The College has graduated more than 7,600 veterinarians since it was created. Today the College has over 500 DVM students, another 2,300 undergraduate students in the biomedical sciences program and 170 graduate students involved in research. Among veterinary colleges, Texas A&M is ranked third in the nation and sixth in the world.
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By Rayford Pullen | [email protected]
When May arrives, we start thinking about weed control. With two years of drought under our belts, grass grazed short and hay stocks depleted, what we do now will influence our forage conditions for the entire year. With 75 percent of our annual warm season forages made by July 15 in North Texas, we need to get the grass growing while the sun shines.
Speaking of the sun shining, the biggest deterrent to growing lots of grass is restricted sunlight, and the biggest sun blockers we have are weeds.
Have you noticed weeds are normally just slightly taller than your grass and are probably blocking 90 percent of the sunlight from reaching the grass itself? So obviously, we need to improve conditions, so sunlight reaches the plants we want to grow.
With grass extremely short, more sunlight is hitting the soil surface now, which in turn results in more weed seed germinating. With the moisture we have received, we expect an abundance of weeds this year.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Jared Groce
Rural land sales are continuing on a steady pace for early spring, with prices holding very strong with the sell-to-list price ratios remaining very high, even on properties that have been on the market for a longer than usual time period. The total number of transactions are picking up once again as the spring selling season kicks off, and the average acreage continues to decrease.
Larger acreage properties seem to be in higher demand than smaller properties currently, with many buyers simply parking cash in real estate to hedge against inflation. Interest rates seem to have settled down and most experts agree that rates will be reduced by the fed this year. Some lenders have programs in place that allow the buyer to reduce their rates without having to go through a full refinance ordeal.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
Future Farmers of America was founded by a group of farmers in 1928 with the mission of preparing the next generation of agriculture. It has done just that during its 95-year history, as the organization works to give back to others by following its motto, “learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve.”
FFA is an organization made up of state associations, and at the helm of the Texas FFA is a team of 12 officers representing their respective areas within the Lone Star State. These individuals dedicate a year of their lives as they serve members, provide leadership, and work together with the state staff and board of directors to develop policy and lead the organization of over 177,000 members.
North Texas is represented by Area IV and Area IV, stretching from Wilbarger County to Bell County and from Runnels County to Grayson County. This year, those chosen to lead this great area are State President Isaac Hawkins Jr., Area IV, and State Vice President Weston Parr, Area V.
Parr is from the Sam Rayburn FFA chapter and the Area V Association, but the leader who now serves more than 19,100 members of Area V entered the FFA organization as a shy teenager who sat in the back of the room.
“I didn’t talk to a whole lot of people. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life or where I could see myself, so I wasn’t involved on my high school campus,” Parr recalled.
“Then I started FFA and slowly but surely, my ag teachers worked me into attending more contests, meeting new people, and speaking. I remember the first time I gave an officer speech to my chapter. I can still remember how embarrassing it was. To see the progression from that moment to speaking on stage at the state convention in front of thousands of people. Now I feel like I can enter the industry I want and be successful all because of what FFA afforded me for five years.”
There is not much Parr did not do during his time in high school. His contest participation included chapter conducting, wool judging, cotton judging, wildlife, and job interview, but his favorite was extemporaneous speaking, which he did not start until his senior year of high school.
“I wish I could go back to my freshman, sophomore, and junior years and start that sooner. I think if I had more time, I would have been more successful than I already was, but that was something I didn’t realize I liked at the time. I’m not naturally somebody who likes to speak in public, but it was actually my favorite,” Parr said.
Parr won several awards during his time competing. In 2023 alone, Parr earned the Texas FFA Service-Learning Proficiency title, was a National FFA Service-Learning Proficiency finalist, and a Texas FFA Extemporaneous Speaking finalist. In addition to his CDE and LDE events during high school, he showed commercial steers at Houston, and boilers at most major shows, participated in the county show with projects in ag mechanics, showed goats from time to time, and showed heifers until graduation.
“FFA provides invaluable resources and knowledge to be successful once you leave high school and you are out of the blue jacket for the first time. I have been a part of a lot of great organizations over the years, and they are all great in their own way, but in my opinion, FFA is the most successful at producing members of society who want to go and do something with themselves,” Parr said.
He was halfway through his time as Area V Association President and attending the national convention when he began to ponder the idea of running for state office.
“This is around the time when you usually figure out if you want to go through and be a state officer or you decide that area officer is your last run. I was unsure of where I wanted to go, but I knew I didn’t want to be done with FFA. I decided maybe it would be a good opportunity not only for me to make more friendships and connections, but also to give back to the program that allowed me to be able to do what I can do today,” Parr explained.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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