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4 CapitalPress.com December 1, 2017 OSU student club raises donated steers By GAIL OBERST For the Capital Press CORVALLIS, Ore. — At the beginning of the school year, Matthew Kennedy and Bailey Wearin contacted ranchers willing to donate steers and heifers for Oregon State University’s Steer-A- Year Club. Students who join the club will raise from 25 to 30 do- nated cattle during the year, gaining experience that cov- ers all aspects of beef man- agement, from feeding and health to harvesting, process- ing and marketing the meat. “It’s a totally student-run project,” said Kennedy, an instructor in the university’s Animal and Rangeland Sci- ence Department. Wearin, a senior majoring in agricultur- al business management, is project manager of the club this year. More than 50 students attended one of the weekly meetings featuring a guest OSU Left to right, this year’s Steer-a-Year leaders are Bailey Wearin, Matthew Kennedy and Jolie Dickerson. Kennedy is the program’s instructor. OSU In OSU’s barns, students in the Steer-A-Year Club get technical and practical experience working with cattle. speaker from Agri Beef Co., based in Idaho. Students can get credit for their work raising cat- tle for the club, but others simply volunteer, taking shifts in the barn or attend- ing meetings to hear the speakers and recruiters. Featured speaker recently was Agri Beef’s El Oro Yard feed manager, an OSU alum and former Steer-A-Year manager, Aly Pemberton. “It’s a great program. I love it. It got me to where I am today,” Pemberton told the Steer-A-Year students at the club gathering. OSU’s program was es- tablished in 1993 to provide more real-life education for IRRIGATION EQUIPMENT BOUGHT. SOLD. RENTAL. Design of Effluent Handling Systems - Gates, Valves & Aerators New & Used Parts • Aluminum Pipe • Certa-lok • Siphon Tubes • HDPE • Sand Media Filters • Wheel Lines • Pumps www.pacsouthwestirr.com Carlos (209) 481-7677 Jim (209) 986-0099 L17-3/106 L17-3/102 students interested in work- ing with cattle. The club is open to all students — they don’t have to be animal sci- ence majors. “Hands-on experience is a big thing in our depart- ment,” said Kennedy, who has led the program for nine years. Oregon State’s is not the only collegiate Steer-A- Year program. It has various renditions in other West- ern states, including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Canada. But each club is unique. Oregon’s offers a full range of activities, from ranch to table. Most of the program’s participants are women — 80 percent, estimated Ken- nedy — who were raised on ranches and farms, such as Wearin, who is from Joseph, and her fellow officer, Jo- lie Dickerson, who grew up raising horses and cattle in Pendleton. “I’m a ranch kid,” shrugs Dickerson. She’s a sopho- more who is exploring veter- inary or dairy work. Dirty hands, muddy feet, hard work, dedication and passion are all part of the job, said Wearin. The students set up feed- ing, vaccination, judging and processing schedules, which they review each Tuesday in club meetings. Feeding is twice a day, at 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Also, students and staff walk through the barns for a daily health check. Students track manage- ment techniques, monthly weight and final carcass data, then they share that information with the ani- mal’s donor after the animal is sold and harvested in the spring. The cattle are raised to 1,200 to 1,400 pounds and are fed a grain-based diet to produce choice quality beef. “A lot of donors like to see how the animal is finish- ing out,” Kennedy said. Students work in the OSU Clark Meat Center, learning to grade, cut and package beef. Then they meet with customers to sell the prod- ucts, Kennedy said. The center is a USDA-inspected slaughter and processing fa- cility. The meat center’s re- tail store is open to the public each Friday. In addition to hands-on work with animals and meet- ings with visiting profession- als, club members also take industry tours and attend conferences. To donate or get more in- formation about the program, contact Kennedy at matthew. kennedy@oregonstate.edu.
