Program Coordinators:
Dr. Derek Nolan, Uni. of Illinois; Dr. Gail Carpenter, Iowa State Uni.; Fred M. Hall, Iowa State Uni.
Relevance:
Over the past several years a group on the Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference board has pushed for a youth component to be added to the conference. With board approval a Three-Minute Thesis Contest was organized. The importance of including youth hinges on four importance issues namely: embracing the inclusion of the next generation of graduates in the convention by putting together potential employees with employers; Familiarizing the next generation with one of the largest dairy nutrition and management conference in the United States; Offering the attendees an opportunity to familiarizing themselves with technologies that are used by their next employees. And finally, a competitive thesis contest gives attendees and in-depth look at each candidate and a chance for personal conversations and hopefully on-sight interviews.
Response:
The inaugural edition of the Three-Minute Student Thesis (3MT) contest with a poster component was held in conjunction with the 2023 Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference in Dubuque, Iowa on June 7-8. The 3MT competition was developed by the University of Queensland in Australia and allows students only three minutes to explain their research and why it is important to the industry.
Master’s and PhD students from the four partner universities were invited to develop a poster and present a three-minute presentation on research they had completed. Entries were received from University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The completion allowed students to showcase their research in a way understandable to those outside the academic community.
The presentations were reviewed by two panels of judges and the winning poster was picked by the 482 nutritionists and consultants attending the conference for a “People’s Choice” award.
Results:
The over-all winner was Evan Cole Diepersloot a PhD student from University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also received the “People’s Choice” award. His focus was the effect of monensin and live-cell yeast supplementation on lactation performance, feeding behavior, and total tract nutrient digestibility by dairy cows. He noted supplementing feed additives, like yeast products and ionophores, can enhance feed efficiency and farm profitability.
The second-place winner was Emily Jacobson, a master’s student from University of Minnesota. Her information noted biological rhythms guide physiological processes in organisms across all domains of organisms and circadian rhythms are a subset of biological rhythms that occur every 24 hours. She reviewed the rumen microbiome of cows and how circadian rhythms play an important role in digesting structural carbohydrates and producing microbial protein.
The judging panel included: Devan Paulus Compart, Papillon Agricultural Company; Karen Luchterhand, Novus International, Inc.; Andre Pereira, GPS Dairy Consulting, LLC; and Jordan Hunt, GPS Dairy Consulting, LLC.
Future Plans:
With the success of this first program, it will be part of the 2024 Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference.
