Animal Husbandry partial training in Wyoming with Campus Mundi Freemover scholarship
Péter Dániel Kovács, professional report of the animal husbandry engineer
I could spend the autumn semester of the 2018/19 academic year in Wyoming, USA, with a study grant. I applied for the Campus Mundi Freemover Fellowship for traveling and living, which allowed me to cover my expenses during my four-month study period.
As an animal husbandry engineer, I tried to choose the subjects that fit my curriculum, but I had to take into consideration the subject acceptances and the content correspondence of the subjects up to a minimum of 20 credits, which was a condition of the grant. In fact, only this has caused some difficulty in the application conditions, as the American system evaluates subjects differently than the European system. Here I have to mention that the registrar’s office and the instructors of MÉK were very helpful and flexible in compiling my curriculum.
Since I have long been moving towards livestock evaluation, these subjects interested me most in Laramie. Fortunately, Animal Breeding, Livestock Fit Show, and Livestock Slaughter Practicum were among the possibilities offered by the two institutes (Food Science and Animal Husbandry) of the Faculty of Animal Husbandry there in addition to Animal Breeding and Principles of Ruminant Physiology as classics. In addition to the three practices which I enjoyed very much, the classics exams were sometimes a serious challenge in English. (Eg: the Nutrition partial exam was a 120-minute, 12-page complex written test and a minimum of 20-page essay based on the evaluation of an experiment.) Even the textbooks could be rented at astronomical prices, but with the materials of the lectures and consultations I could prepare well for the exams. Practices and practice locations were taken very seriously. The well-equipped private university educational farm and slaughterhouse helped the training.
The instructors and the teachers - later the students - helped a lot in the orientation and preparation for the exams. The picture below shows the stallion, with whom we worked together for three months, as part of the exam, to win the 3rd prize at the show. We had a lot of work until “Öcsi” became "disciplined" and "well combed" ...
The evaluation of the main breeding animals in the framework of the Animal Evaluation subject could be studied partly at external sites and partly by the animals of the educational farm. For me, cattle evaluation was the most useful. The Slaughterhouse Practice was a real challenge, as we learned the elements of slaughter of farm animals (sheep, pig and beef) in reality and the associated quality assurance standards, with the help of the supervisors. The grading was mainly based on the skill of the group…
The university campus was well-equipped, and most of the services were free for students with a university card: eg meals,sports facilities. Unlike the students of the courses I chose, the multicultural campus and college were typical of the campus. All kinds of nationalities were present at various university courses, except for agrarians, where they were almost exclusively "locals". In the dormitory, I got into a room with a French geologist, so I stayed in a European environment, although I never met a Hungarian. At the events and in the dormitory, I became friends with many foreign students, and I was able to spend thanksgiving with an American family, so I could see the American life as well. And since Wyoming is the home of cowboys and cowgirls, there were regular agricultural programs, which I enjoyed very much.
I feel lucky that I was able to get to Wyoming and complete the courses I had chosen. In order to be able to solve this professionally and financially, the help of Campus Mundi's scholarship source and the sending university was of great help from both the International Office and the staff and instructors of MÉK.
Thanks: Péter Kovács Dániel DE MÉK Animal Husbandry engineer 2nd year MSc student