The Dairy Calf & Heifer Association has chosen a Pepin County student as the winner of its $1,000 scholarship. Faith Baier of Durand has earned a bachelor's degree in animal science from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, master's degree in livestock behavior and welfare from Colorado State University, and is pursuing a doctorate degree in animal welfare from UW-Madison.
Baier raised livestock and worked at her father's feed store. Her current research involves providing simple brushes to post-weaned dairy heifers. Faith is studying how the quantity of brushes per pen of heifers affects their brush use and competition, with practical implications for providing dairy heifers with simple and cost-effective environmental enrichments to enhance animal welfare.
In addition to her research, Baier is dedicated to teaching and mentoring agricultural science students. She helps coach UW-Madison's animal welfare judging team, serves as a guest lecturer for dairy management and lactation physiology courses, and supervises undergraduate research assistants who help her with on-farm data collection, processing samples and coding digital data in the laboratory.
The DCHA scholarship program recognizes an outstanding student pursuing a degree in agriculture, with a particular interest in calf health and future productivity.
Categories: Wisconsin, Education