UMES Department of Agriculture Livestock Program

Livestock facilities:  The Swine Research and Education Facility is a 40 sow farrow-to-finish primarily indoor operation with a large classroom, surgery suite, and laboratory. The Ruminant Research and Education Farm has pastures, buildings, shelters and handling systems to work with a 40 doe Boer and Kiko crossbred herd of goats (the Boer goats are shown in local shows) and a 50 ewe flock of Katahdin and Katahdin crossbred hair sheep plus a few Suffolk crossbred ewes for offspring to participate in local shows.  We get in calves every year that the students in the Introduction to Animal and Poultry Science class care for and halter train and we have had horses on the farm as well.

UMES Livestock Research: Goat, swine, sheep and horse applied research (breeding and genetics, feeding and nutrition, reproduction, growth and development, etc.) as well as biotechnology research through collaborations.  Also, with pigs, nutrition-reproduction interactions, specifically looking at influences of metabolic and satiety factors on female reproduction.

Outreach:  The Animal and Poultry Science Club has volunteered at dog shows, hosted livestock auctions, taken field trips to vet schools and farms, and invited job recruiters to host pizza parties.  Also, MANRRS is a club open to students involved in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences - they host parties and travel to National MANRRS meetings.  Producer groups meet on the UMES campus and livestock facilities and faculty are also available for support programs for the Annual Small Farms Conference (Maryland Cooperative Extension, UMES).  UMES faculty work with the local Somerset County Fair as well as the Maryland State Fair livestock shows. 

For more information about the Livestock facilities and UMES Farm livestock research, contact Dr. Niki Whitley (CV) at 410-651-6194 or by email at nwhitley@umes.edu.  For information about poultry research and facilities, contact Dr. Jeannine-Harter Dennis at 410-651-6542. 

For information on Animal and Poultry Science degree options, click here.