Dairy Extension partnerships

A partnership of SDSU with a new university, the Unidad Academica Campesina (UAC), a college in rural Bolivia that generates social and economic change through community-centered education has broadened the land grant philosophy of serving people through teaching, research, and extension at a global scale by linking SDSU. Although SDSU’s initial role was advisory; it has now expanded to include interactive teaching, research and extension projects. To date, 26 SDSU Faculty from eight departments and two colleges have been involved in collaborative projects, and UAC collaborators are active at SDSU as visiting scholars, as graduate students, and post-doctoral colleagues. Students from SDSU and UAC share classes both at a distance and on site. Recently, the collaboration expanded to include three tribal colleges located in South Dakota and Nebraska. This partnership currently focuses on the development of land enhancement research and the development of ethics training for scientists and engineers. Grant funding has been received from The W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the USDA, and NSF.

The service component of the SDSU Dairy Science Department has also expanded as there is an increased need for engagement with broader audiences within and beyond the state and country borders. Among the goals to achieve our departmental mission statement “to be a national and international leader in dairy education, research, and Extension” is the expansion of the reach of the Department through engagement, technology and globalization. In following this goal the Department has been recently involved in an exchange program hosting two colleagues from the “Unidad Academica Campesina”. Juan Jose Martin Morales Fernandez MVZ (in the picture) Director of Veterinary Medicine and y Zootechnical studies at the Unidad Academica Campesina de Carmen Pampa, “San Pablo” Bolivian Catholic University and Carlos Vergara an Agronomist also with the UAC. Their main interests were to develop a Dairy Science Unit in their area. As part of their activities they visited farms that participated of the USDA/SDSU Farm Employee Safety Project together with the Project Assistant Umberto Francesa, and Employee Training Sessions in Milk Quality of with Dr. Alvaro Garcia.

Pictured above, Martin Morales and Dr. Alvaro Garcia at a local dairy farm

31 July 2009

South Dakota State University / Dairy Science Department
Dairy Microbiology Rm 109 / Phone: 605-688-4116
College of Agricultural and Biological Sciences