Baby Animals Born at Utah State Fair with help from USU Veterinary Students

Utah State University veterinary medicine students are getting great experience as part of a team at the Utah State Fair’s first ever animal birthing center. Delivering and caring for baby farm animals is not a typical activity at the fair, but the students are collaborating with the Utah Veterinary Medical Association, fair organizers and the state’s agricultural community to provide a new experience for fair visitors.

The birthing center features pigs, cows, goats, sheep and chickens. Visitors who are in the right place at the right time can watch new life begin at the fair when the animals give birth at the center. By the mid-point of the fair’s 11-day run piglets, goats and a calf had been born and several chicks hatched.

“The main purpose is to expose more people to animal agriculture,” said Kerry Rood, assistant professor in USU’s Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences. “Bringing in baby animals and hatching eggs provides a way to capture the public’s attention … and provides an opportunity for our students to educate visitors and exercise the client communication and public relations skills they have been learning in the program.”

Fair visitor are learning about agricultural animals in a new way, Rood said, and added that children are mesmerized by the experience. Thirty students are taking shifts at the birthing center, as are several local veterinarians. For second-year USU veterinary medicine student Casey Drummond, working at the fair has been fun, educational and a great reminder of why she wants to be a veterinarian.

“It’s so easy to find yourself swimming in all the little scientific details that you are exposed to daily in lectures and labs that it’s refreshing to get to interact with people and remember why we pursue this complex field of study,” Drummond said. “As much as veterinary medicine is about animals, communication with people is probably one of the most important skills we can learn to improve the lives of animals. Working the birthing center at the fair is a great outlet to practice these skills and share our love for animals with others in a really fun environment.”

Most animals deliver without help from their human caregivers, but the students are keeping the mothers and babies healthy and safe and turning animals’ behavior into teaching opportunities.

“We have a sow with piglets, and being pigs, they were most interested in nursing and sleeping all day, Drummond said. “Mama sow got a little irritated at some crowds around her pen in the afternoon, but for the most part we were able alert the public to these sorts of things, which is a great outlet for education about interpreting animal behavior. We had three goat kids that we were able to let people interact with, which is really just a lot of fun for people of any age because goats have a lot of character. And who doesn't love baby animals?”

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Note: The animal birthing center is at the southwest area of the Utah State Fairgrounds, near the livestock and show animal facilities. Students will be on duty again Friday, Sept. 12, from 5-9 p.m.

Contacts: Kerry Rood, 435-797-1882, Kerry.Rood@usu.edu; Lynnette Harris, 435-797-2189 (office), 435-764-6936 (cell), Lynnette.Harris@usu.edu

Writer: Elaine Taylor, Elaine.Taylor@usu.edu