Raw or Roasted?

Introduction:

Football season, election season, pumpkin spice season…it’s a busy time of year! This weekend was especially important because, as a SDSU alum, I was passionately cheering for the Jacks as they faced their rivals. This weekend didn’t go our way, but the championship is the main goal!

With that in mind, I want to let you know that I appreciate you taking the time to read and share this newsletter. I’ll be looking for feedback on it soon so please think of what content you enjoy and which you don’t enjoy so that I can continue to make this an effective use of your time!

What’s new in dairy science?

This week, I’ll be showing my Michigan State pride a bit more…as well as showing off the great work of a PhD classmate of mine – Alycia Bales. She did a couple of experiments with High Oleic Soybeans. The first paper was covered in our 5th edition where they investigated different inclusion levels of High Oleic Soybeans. In this experiment, they investigated feeding these beans raw, roasted, or raw with the addition of a protected soybean meal. It’s a good experiment investigating different ration balancing approaches when using High Oleic Soybeans.

I’m going to focus on the roasted vs raw high oleic bean results in this edition. Feeding the roasted beans increased energy corrected milk by approximately 3 kg/d. Both milk fat and protein yields were increased by approximately 100 g/d when feeding the roasted vs. the raw high oleic soybeans.

The roasted beans also reduced milk urea nitrogen which indicates a better use of N with the roasted soybean inclusion. It was also interesting that the roasted bean-fed cows gained less BW than cows fed the raw soybeans. All this data together suggests that roasted soybean-fed cows were getting more of the feed energy and feed protein into the bulk tank than raw soybean fed cows.

Leadership, Growth and Development?

Recently, I heard a quote the resonated with me more than most. The quote was “Were all living life for the first time.” I had to chew on this for a while to really absorb what it meant for me.

After sitting with this quote for a while, I realized that, at least for myself, it reminded me that were all learning everyday and that were all facing new challenges all the time. As an example, as a new faculty member I am always seeking out advice from senior faculty members expecting that they will have every answer to every question. Sometimes they have experienced something similar and have a great answer but sometimes they don’t. Just because they’re older or at a more senior level than you doesn’t mean they have to know or must know the answer. Give them some grace, they’re living life for the first time, too.

Remembering that were all living for the first time really helped me when thinking about the people I ask for advice from most often – my parents. My siblings and I often joke that our parents drive us nuts…we wonder how they could think or do such a thing?! Now, when I think that, I pause and remember that they’re going through things for the first time too. They probably don’t have the right answer and are trying to find an answer just like the rest of us.

We’re all living for the first time at the same time. Give some grace and have some patience. We’re all going to make choices or take actions that may be mistakes or not make sense so be patient and support each other.

Final thoughts:

As I said, thank you so much for reading and please share this with friends and colleagues of yours.