At the 2016 Cornell Dairy Center of Excellence Symposium, Dr. Jessica McArt gave a seminar along with Kelley Jensen from Lawnhurst Farms on the bovine metabolic athlete and how research intertwines with dairy management. If you’d like to learn more about negative energy balance in early lactation dairy cows, Lawnhurst Farms, or some of the research that is being undertaken in the McArt Dairy Cow Lab, click on the link below to have a look at the video!
Jessica McArt, assistant professor of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences (PMDS), speaks at the inaugural (2016) Dairy Center for Excellence (CDCE) Symposium.
Dr. Kathryn Bach recently published her first manuscript comparing multiple hand-held blood ketone meters for identification of hyperketonemia in dairy cows, for which she received the “Editor’s Choice” in the Journal of Dairy Science’s November 2016 issue. Her work will be displayed prominently on the front page of the JDS website for the month, and her publication will be freely accessible to all following this award. Congrats, Kathryn!
Click on the image below to be taken to Dr. Bach’s publication …
Six members of the McArt Dairy Cow Lab spent last week in Charlotte, NC at the 2016 American Association of Bovine Practitioners Annual Conference. We were busy learning, giving research presentations, exercising, and catching up with colleagues.
Dr. Kathryn Bach presented a research summary discussing her work comparing handheld ketosis meters, for which she won 1st place in the graduate student competition! Dr. Raf Neves gave an excellent presentation on his recent study evaluating risk factors associated with postpartum subclinical hypocalcemia, and Isabelle Louge gave her first national presentation in the student research summary session on her work with single-administration oral calcium supplementation. All three did a fantastic job representing our lab and have set a great standard for future lab members!
Three of our members also participated in the 4th annual Stampede 5k race, which seemed like a good idea at the time of registration. Perhaps not so much at 6:30am on a Saturday, but Stephanie Tarlowe, Isabelle Louge, and Jess McArt joined 94 other participants in a 5k run to raise money for the Amstutz Scholarship Fund with smiles at the finish!
Stephanie, Jess, and Isabelle.
We are all now back in Ithaca taking classes, doing field projects, and analyzing data. Stay tuned for more research updates!
Congrats to two McArt Lab members, Dani Harris and Jamie Horstmann, who recently received their undergrad diplomas from Cornell and are moving on to exciting things! Dani will be starting a Masters degree at the University of Vermont conducting research at the Miner Institute in Chazy, New York, and Jamie is moving to Gainesville, Florida where she will begin veterinary school at the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine. We wish them both the best of success!
And a video of some happy gals getting milked in one of the rotary parlors in the area … Because, why not?
This summer we’ve been gearing up for Dr. Bach’s first big research project where we are going to be looking at the association of milk ketones with milk quality and health in early lactation dairy cattle.
And, we should have known, with all new trials come tribulations.
For this trial, it was trying to figure out all the ins and outs of official milk sampling including acquiring all the equipment. Who would have thought that milk samplers and finding a particular set of milk cans could make a grad student and her summer staff so happy!?!
Jamie and Mariah are almost as psyched as Dr. Bach!
You never know what you’ll find lurking in the corner of a random office out at the Cornell University Ruminant Center!
Be sure to stay tuned to see more of what’s in store this summer!
For her graduate research, Dr. Kathryn Bach is studying negative energy balance and udder health in early lactation dairy cattle. Being the dedicated woman she is, Kathryn decided to jump right in and go through the experience herself, and she and her husband welcomed Jack into their family in mid-February. The McArt Lab is excited to have a baby to snuggle and are trying to hold things together until Kathryn’s return (we can’t run this place without her!).
McArt Lab graduate students, Dr. Rafael Neves and Dr. Kathryn Bach, have been hard at work completing on-farm projects looking at energy and macromineral deficiencies in early lactation dairy cows. I’m happy to report that in December, both finished collecting their last samples and have now moved on to the exciting stage of data analysis!
Dr. Neves is happy to have collected his last blood sample!
Dr. Neves and Dr. Bach are all smiles when they are out collecting samples on dairies!
McArt Lab undergraduate student, Dani Harris, has also been working hard in the wee hours of the morning collecting milk samples for storage analysis.
Dani processing milk samples at 5AM.
The cows getting milked are curious as to what we are doing!
Seems as if the February 25 issue of Progressive Dairyman likes to discuss metabolic disease in early lactation cows every year! In the 2016 issue, McArt Lab post-doc, Dr. Sabine Mann, discusses how to manage and monitor the metabolic “Armageddon” in transition cows.
Dr. Raf Neves represented The McArt Lab at the 2015 American Dairy Science Association Annual Conference in Orlando, FL, giving both a poster and oral presentation on his work validating a cow-side ionized calcium meter for periparturient dairy cows.
The McArt Lab has another publication in the Journal of Dairy Science, this one assessing the association of NEFA and BHBA in periparturient dairy cows!
Spring has sprung and the McArt Dairy Cow Lab is up and at ’em. Yesterday marked the start of our first big trial as a lab. Thankfully, all went smoothly. Now here’s to hoping the next three months or so of daily sampling go just a well!
I guess we have to call our lab legit now because we just purchased our first BIG piece of equipment: a -80 freezer! I don’t think I’ve ever really seen the inside of one before (without all the frost, that is).
Now all we need are a few samples to start storing in this behemoth! All in due time, all in due time!
Dr. McArt has been spending a lot of time in the spotlight these days! Check out her most recent publication in Journal of Dairy Science discussing the costs of hyperketonemia in early lactation dairy cattle.
