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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
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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.