Synthesis Post

Hello and welcome to All You Need to Know Ag, where we are all about agriculture and natural resources. We are a team of three Michigan State University undergraduate students in the fields of Fisheries and Wildlife, Animal Science and Agricultural Engineering. Our goal is to share as much information with you about our fields as we go about our experiences in college. Here is a brief description of each of our fields:

·       Fisheries and Wildlife – Development and management of the nation’s fish and wildlife resources.

·       Animal Science – Studying the biology of animals that are under the control of humankind.

·       Agricultural Engineering – Agricultural engineers apply technological advances to farming. (Bureau of Labor & Statistics)

This post is a complete synthesis of what we’ve learned over the course of writing our blog. We aim to cover the best things to do (which you will soon learn is hands on experience), what not to do, and discoveries that are waiting to be made. Continue reading to gain some insider tips, and read some of our other posts for some further great information!

Hands on Experience
          Have you ever heard the term don't knock it till you try it? Well when it comes to your major in order to get a proper feel of it you have to try it out in some sort of way. This can be by volunteering, internships, and study abroad. Also you can take entry level 100 courses for your major to try it out. When you learn from doing hands on activities we feel like you retain the information better and you can get quick reaction to whether or not you like something. If you look at the Prompt 8 post you will see an example of hands on work.

Source: http://doghumor.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/dog-humor-i-have-no-idea-what-im-doing.jpg

Without our 100 level classes, we all would be this dog.

          Networking through internships is a great way to gain experience. My academic adviser sends me emails with internship opportunities almost every day. The job might not be exactly what you want and you may or may not get paid. It will probably be some type of grunt work but you will be able to tell if you enjoy the work you are doing. Internships are also a great way to network and it looks great on job applications.

          Want to go somewhere warm with lots of sunshine? Go to the study abroad fair and find a program that works for you. The first week they will explain most study abroad options at the fair. And they will have one a month or so into the semester. They realize that this is a good opportunity for you grow as a person and get experiences that you wouldn't be able to get on a college campus in the middle of Michigan. Our majors have study abroad options on every continent. Yes I said every continent and yes that means Antarctica and yes it would be awesome to go.

          The point is you will be able to learn from books but when you get experience it is clear instantly if you like something. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty and step out of your box. Experience new things and grow as a person. But now that we know what to do, what should we NOT do?

What Not To Do

         When trying to learn about animal science, fisheries and wildlife, agricultural engineering, or any other major in general, there are many things that you shouldn't do. One might think that using the internet as a major resource is a good idea, but that could potentially not be the best idea.

          Yes, one can get quite a bit of information from researching on the internet, but not all of it is completely accurate, and it's not getting you out in the world for hands-on experience. Sitting at home looking at a computer screen all day isn't going to help you all that much if you're trying to learn as much as you can about a field. Researching on a computer or out of books is going to lack information that can be given to you if you are actually out interacting with those who work in, or are familiar with the field. Also, by not going out to receive information, you aren't getting the full description of the field. If one is researching online, he/she will most likely look at an office of the registrar site that has a degree description. It will not be as good as seeing someone perform in that field and gaining first-hand knowledge.

Source: http://www.hillmangroup.com/images/EZClone_NoInternet.jpg

          According to one of our blog posts entitled "How Is Research Conducted?", the writer gave information on different ways that research is done in the field of agricultural engineering. But why are we telling you all this? We want you to be able to discover the many different things out there, just as we have.

Discovery

         Throughout our experiences, we've learned that there are a vast number of directions that you can go with your degree. Many people just getting started in the field just see the tip of the iceberg. What might look like a highly narrow field may present itself as a highly diverse opportunity with just a little bit of digging. This is exactly the case with what we've discovered here at the 'Everything You Need to Know Ag' Blog. Here are a few of our experiences in discovering different career tracks:

        In our post “Employment in Agricultural Engineering”, we learned that sometimes a field isn’t always what we expect it to be like. Many times engineering is thought of as an office job where people have a very narrow field of things that they do. In researching possible employers, we were able to be exposed to areas of agricultural engineering completely ‘under the radar’. Some of these include the tasks of collecting field samples, conducting research and reviewing field related literature. (“What Is an Agricultural Engineer”) However, the discoveries do not end there.

         These discoveries carry over directly to animal science, where we learned the many different possibilities that are not well known to the public. As we previously thought, many people find animal science as a career in which people work strictly in agriculture or as a veterinarian. Our post Types of Work done in the Field of Animal Science goes into detail about how we’ve discovered that this is not the case. With a little bit of research and contact with people already in the field, we learned an enormous number of possibilities in animal science. Click the link and check them out!

         Finally, in fisheries and wildlife, most people think of careers such as a conservation officer or wildlife biologist. While this is true, we learned what this could truly mean for a career in fisheries in wildlife. Fisheries and wildlife may include both work in the field and work in a laboratory. Many different environmental factors and their effects are studied by fisheries and wildlife majors. Learn more of what we discovered by reading Jake’s post – What can you do?

          Anybody interested in pursuing a degree in Animal Science, Fisheries and Wildlife or Agricultural Engineering should truly take exploring different opportunities seriously. Here at 'Everything You Need to Know Ag' blog, we've discovered that something that may not look as appealing on the surface as you might actually find it to be. Hidden below the surface of each degree has many different careers and pathways virtually unknown to anyone not an expert in the field.


Sources:

"What Is an Agricultural Engineer?" How to Become an Agricultural Engineer. Environmental Science, 2015. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2014-15 Edition, Agricultural Engineers, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/agricultural-engineers.htm (visited November 16, 2015).

Prompt 3 - Interview with an Engineer: Writing in Engineering

By: Tyler Lahusky

Writing is involved in every field and every career. Many of us don't realize how big writing truly is in our fields. In order to learn more about what writing in agricultural engineering what it is like, I contacted Bill Begg, a Principal Instrumentation and Controls engineer. Begg is Vice President of As-Built Management engineering firm. His daily activities include proposal development, project scoping, developing design documents, device specification and PLC programming. Here are the questions I asked him about writing in engineering and the responses I received:

On a daily basis, how much writing is involved in engineering?

According to Begg, the amount of writing in engineering varies each day, but almost all of the communication that he does involves some sort of writing. He says there are five main types of writing that he does on a daily basis. These include the topics listed below. Begg also gives a brief overview of what accompanies these forms of writing in which I also describe below:

• Proposals to Clients
• This typically involves explaining a technical execution of a job in a non-technical language. In other words, it is a proposal to a client that involves a complete translation from engineering talk to everyday language. Proposals to clients usually involve five main areas - Overview/Background, Scope of Work, Deliverables (What exactly are we going to do), Execution, and schedule. 
• Design Basis
• Design basis is telling whoever needs to know what a process accomplishes right now, and what they want the process to accomplish upon changes. These include a large amount of information and are usually made up of mainly numbers. However, Begg says that explanation is often necessary to explain things to a non-technical person.
• Training Documentation
• Training documentation is the explanation of operation and maintenance of equipment. The audience of training documentation is the machine operator and is typically written in the consumer companies preferred format, according to Begg.
• Progress Reports/Updates
• Progress reports, Begg says, are usually an outline format of performance against the stated deliverables (what the machine is actually supposed to do).
• Notes and Journals
• Notes and journals are often used by Begg to capture his own thoughts. Many times he writes long winded notes to himself to organize and remember thoughts on a particular project.

What is the typical genre of writing that is involved in engineering?

Begg says that writings in engineering are most often done in a technical form. Many times the audience prefers highlights of a subject in the form of bulleted technical writing.

In general, who is the audience of most writing completed as an engineer?

According to Begg, there are six typical audiences for writing as an engineer. These include:

1. Project Managers
2. Other Engineers
3. Vendors or Equipment Providers
4. Corporate Management
5. Plant Workforce (ie. operations and maintance)

As you move up the company ladder, does the amount of writing increase or decrease?

In Beggs experience, the amount of writing in engineering increases as you move up the company ladder. Instead of verbalizing much of your explanation and communication, Begg says that as engineers mature and advance in the company, engineers will write more and use communication in the form of writing to their benefit.

Out of all the tasks you have as an engineer, is writing an enjoyable task for you?

According to Begg, writing in engineering has become an enjoyable part of his career. Begg says that throughout his engineering experience and company advancement, he has learned to greatly appreciate writing in engineering as a form of communication.

In your opinion, what are some common misconceptions about writing in engineering?

Begg says there are a number of misconceptions about writing in engineering. Some of these misconceptions might include that writing in engineering is too technical and difficult to understand. Many people believe that it is too difficult to turn writing in engineering into prose, and that all engineering writing is formulas. Lastly, many people believe that engineers do not know how to write, which is another common misconception according to Begg.

To end the interview, Begg left me with some tips for writing in engineering. He says to always state the conclusions first as that is what people want to know. Always support all of your statements, and lastly, writing in engineering should follow the same format as any persuasive writing format. After talking to Begg about writing in engineering, I gained a much greater insight to the type of writing that I will encounter as an agricultural engineer. I hope you also learned something new about writing in engineering from this interview, and a thank you to Bill Begg for allowing me to interview him.

Prompt 10

Misrepresentation of a field could potentially be the downfall of a business or a department. It can lead to lawsuits or termination of positions. At thebirdhuntingsociety.weebly.com under misrepresentation of facts it gives a brief explanation of swans. Mute swans were not federally protected because they were not native and not migratory birds. What does this mean? People could shoot them at anytime of the year. This in itself could lead to the decimation of a population of swans in a area. The Department of Fisheries and Wildlife were thinking that the legal shooting would keep down the number of feral mute swans.

                                       
                                                                           Mute Swans

This lead to a lawsuit where the Swans had to be put onto the protected list meaning they were considered native species. This lead to an increase of feral mute swans and it threatened other populations. Eventually the lawsuit was dropped and a management plan was set into place.


If the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife would have represented their information better this incident might not have happened.

Ways they could have presented the information better.

• Use of statistics and charts
• This would show the amount of feral vs Mute swans in the wild
• Show population trends in the Swans

The problems with this piece was the lack of any use of statistics. Without stats it is hard to show trends in population and if your plan for management is working. Also there was a lack of research in the piece. Your argument is stronger with the facts from the research you did. With sufficient evidence, statistics, and facts the lawsuit might not have happened at all. Because of the lawsuit they had to start over with population management efforts.

Sources:
"Help Pass NY Senate Bill to Save Mute Swans." Friends of Animals -. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.

"The Bird Hunting Society." The Bird Hunting Society. Web. 22 Nov. 2015.

Jake B

Prompt #9 Recognizing Significance in Animal Science

       While searching for a news story for this prompt, I wasn't seeming to have much luck. I looked for a pretty decent amount of time, until I came across an article about 60,000 antelopes were all killed in a matter of 4 days. I was intrigued, and I knew that it would be able to show the importance of animal science and those working in the field.

       This particular incident with the antelopes took place in Kazakhstan, and a geoecologist and his colleagues were the ones who went to Asia to try to figure out this unusual phenomenon. They came to the conclusion that more than half of the herd died; and it happened very rapidly. From the research of geoecologists, veterinarians, and many others with further knowledge on animals came to the conclusion that one of the biggest roles in the death of so many antelopes was bacteria. According to those who researched this odd phenomenon, something like this hasn't been observed for any other species. It was observed that the females were the ones to pass the quickest, with their calves being next. With that information, is has been thought that whatever was killing the antelopes was being transmitted through the mothers' milk.

       Obviously, according to this article, without those who went to Asia, we wouldn't know anything about what killed the antelopes. It isn't positive what exactly was the cause, but those who researched it have a pretty good idea of what happened. In the field of animal science, there are a lot of career options, like I have stated in previous blog posts. In a situation like this one in Asia, someone who studied animal science would be the perfect person to go there and try to figure out what went wrong. Without animal scientists, situations like that would be unsolved and animals would be dying out a lot faster than they already are. We need people in the world to be able to deal with situations such as this one.

- Jamie R.

Source:

Ghose, Tia. "What Killed 60,000 Antelope in 4 Days? : DNews." DNews. Discovery Communications, 4 Sept. 2015. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.                         

Prompt 8

For my major you have the ability to do field research. What happens when something goes wrong while you are in the field? You could be stuck in the woods for a night or two and if you do not have basic survival skills such as shelter making and fire building you could freeze to death. This blog post is going to show pictures of my first attempt at building a shelter and fire building.

To start the shelter my team and I decided that we were going to build a raised platform. We took three logs and made a triangle base and then took 6 inch diameter longs and stacked them on the base making a platform. Next we took a thick branch that was forked at the end (looked like a Y) and wedged it at a base of one tree and on the trunk of another. This was support to the shelter. In the picture above you can see that we used thicker branches and leaned them on the support branch. Next we took smaller sticks and weaved them in and out for siding.

Lastly we put long grass on the side to keep it insulated.


My group thought this was going to be the best shelter out of the entire class. However when we were finished Dr. Hayes had a handout about the shelter you should build. The shelter we build was an A frame which is what you want to build. However there was to much space in between the roof and the ground which causes heat to escape. Also on the outside you want to use about 2-3 feet of leaves to cover your shelter. This will help trap heat in and it will make the shelter water proof.

Fire building is a skill that will keep you alive in a survival situation. It will keep you warm and you can cook and boil bad water. We built this fire using pine needles and grass. We didn't have matches or a lighter, instead we used flint. I will not lie we didn't succeed our first try. It took a long time to get it started but we succeeded. A suggestion that I have to people who are going out into the woods or camping. Keep a bag of cotton balls with vasoline on them. They ignite quickly and will help start your fire.

The point of this blog is to show how a hands on activity was different than learning from a book. A book can give you instructions or suggestions on how to do something. However in a life or death situation you do not know if you can do these things if you have never tried or practiced. In my field we work in nature so my Professor wanted us to have the basic skills so we wouldn't potentially die if we were stuck over night. This revealed that my field is more dangerous than previously thought. I should take extra survival classes to prepare for it.

Jake B

Importance of Animal Science

       When one thinks about the field of animal science, the first thing that most likely pops into their minds is veterinarian. I know this from personal experience. Whenever others ask me what my major is, and I respond with "animal science", they typically ask me if I'm trying to become a vet. I have to explain to them that I want to end up working at a zoo, and that my intended future career is not a veterinarian.

       Even though a veterinarian is a possible career with animal science, there are many other career options that are just as important to the world as a vet is. Veterinary science is very necessary in the world. Without it, pet owners would be losing pets without even giving them a fighting chance at life. But one reason why animal scientists are so important to the world is because they are the ones who produce the meat that everyone eats. According to animalsmart.org, "animal scientists work with farmers to improve animal breeding, diseases and nutrition . When animals grow well and stay healthy, farmers can produce more meat, milk or eggs for our consumption. Animal scientists also work with farmers to decrease the environmental impact of animal agriculture" (Animal Smart, "Why is Animal Science Important?).

There are many other reasons why animal science is important to the world including:

• Advances in food safety
• Keeping us clothed with animal fabrics such as wool
• Animal scientists learn about draft animals for labor
• Protecting human health by studying diseases
• Keeping out pets healthy (veterinarians)
• Helping to preserve exotic wildlife

Source:

"Why Is Animal Science Important?" Animal Smart. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

Impact of Agricultural Engineering

By: Tyler Lahusky

"There are many jobs you can do with your degree, like feeding the world" - John Deere Company

Agricultural engineering is unlike many other careers or degrees that someone can obtain. It is not something that can be thought of as a "take it or leave it" career. Instead, agricultural engineering is a necessary career in a growing world with many growing issues. As the world population rises, problems present themselves in the form of food shortages, water shortages, health issues and a growing energy crisis. Agricultural engineers are a select group of people that set out to battle these issues and keep the world turning, improving life for everyone throughout the world. ("History | BAE")

The Mission - To improve the quality of life by integrating and applying principals of engineering and biology to systems involving food, environment, energy and health. - Michigan State University ("History | BAE")

Working in these areas, agricultural engineers work to improve food quality and bio-security. This is done in a number of different ways, but all with the same impact in mind - creating a safer food industry in the world. This is just one of the ways that agricultural engineering affects each and every one of us in our everyday lives. Along with food safety, a growing population has created a massive energy crisis. In order to combat this energy crisis, it is agricultural engineers that work to create innovative biological solutions to new energy sources. New biological energy sources has a lasting impact on the environment as we can discontinue our use of non-renewable energy sources, as well as a lasting impact on everyone's wallet. ("History | BAE")

When people think of agriculture, they think of farming. This is another major task that agricultural engineers undertake in their quest to improve the world. Farming techniques are constantly in need of improvement to save money and increase yield to supply a growing population. In order to do this, new processes and machinery must be invented to get the job done. Agricultural engineers design these processes and machines to make life easier for today's farmers and bring greater amounts of fresh food to more tables throughout the world. ("What does an Agricultural Engineer do?")

If you read my post about biotechnology, you may already have an idea of what it is and the impact it may have. Biotechnology is the genetic modification of organisms to create a better product as the result. The impact of biotechnology through the work of agricultural engineers is highly significant. Implementation of biotechnology has the power to alter the course of world hunger and malnutrition. People who live in climates were it is difficult to grow certain foods would be able to grow new plants through genetic engineering, allowing access to nutrients they never had access to before. Biotechnology also allows agricultural engineers to create things like a new way to vaccinate for disease. For example, in order to vaccinate for a specific disease, agricultural engineers genetically modify a fruit to grow that vaccine. Therefore, all one has to do is eat the fruit to become vaccinated. (Frompovicz)

Clearly the work of agricultural engineers is not anything close to mediocre, but is a career that has a lasting impact and can ultimately change the world. For more insight as to what an agricultural engineer does and the impact they have, watch the video below from Michigan State University on Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering.

Source: http://www.egr.msu.edu/bae/news/biosystems-engineering-meeting-needs-humankind-sustainably

Sources:

 "History | BAE." History | BAE. Michigan State University, 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

"What Does an Agricultural Engineer Do?" NCSU Biological Agricultural Engineering. North Carolina State University, 7 Apr. 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. 

Frompovicz, H. (2006). A Growing Controversy: Genetic Engineering in Agriculture. Retrieved November 10, 2015, from http://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=elj&sei-redir=1&referer=http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=controversy%20in%20agricultural%20engineering&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB0QFj