Travis Blattner
Dr. Atchley
AGSD 485
August 1st, 2015
Internship Reflection
Within the Discipline:
When thinking of Ag classes that helped me with my internship, Animal Science 107 is a definite
choice. In class I learned a lot about the swine reproduction and valuable knowledge about
their health and vaccinations. When I got to Nebraska it really helped because I had already
learned the essence of breeding and herdsmanship, then I just got to put that information to
work in the everyday task on a show pig farm. Animal Science 207 helped greatly too as that
class primarily focuses on judging quality show stock. We learned the correct terminology and
phrases to be able to talk about the animals to others as well as knowing how to evaluate
livestock properly. When breeding and selling show hogs you must know what you’re looking at
and be able to describe those animals to potential buyers that way we get a sufficient income
back into the business. On the business side of the operations, Ag Credit and Ag Finances
classes played a role in our day to day needs when we were dealing with stuff in the office.
Such as using quickbooks for selling semen, collecting and paying debts to other breeding
operations, and keeping track of our breeding assets and liabilities. Seth and I had to stay on
top of numbers that way we knew we were having more income from semen sales and selling
young prospects then what we put out for all the necessities to manage the operation.
Beyond the Discipline:
Communications class is the first subject that comes to mind when talking about core classes
that helped me with everyday business. Growing up I didn’t have the best communication skills
to say the least. But the class taught me how to communicate in a professional demeanor with
others and to be polite and respectful when I do. I also learned a lot on hoe to present projects
and myself to others and how to take control of the room when I speak. Communicating with
bosses, other breeders, employees, and customers is a must for being able to play a major role
in a business and I feel that I have become really good at it thanks to the class. Math classes
because in any breeding operations you have to know numbers and how to coordinate the herd
around that and know what amount of feed and vaccinations to need to have for a certain
amount of animals. Animal Biology would be the last one that I can think that helped me in my
job. We learned animal systems such as muscle, respiratory and the parasites and diseases that
can occur with them.
Beyond Academics:
Living the stockshow life and being on the road is something I have been doing for a long time
now and a huge part of who I am. It is easy to say that showing pigs in FFA, judging livestock
collegiately for Tarleton, and helping put on judging contest for 4-H and FFA did not only help
me in my internship but what gave me the opportunity to have the internship offer to begin
with which later turned into a full time employment offer from A Cut Above to stay after
graduation. Showing pigs is what got me in the lifestyle and how I started to meet a lot of the
big name breeders around the country that I do today. People took a lot of knowledge and
appreciation how I paid for all my animals, feed, traveling, picking them out, and all showing
needs; I got a lot of respect from people for that. Doing it myself and being so passionate about
it made me good and how I easily knew how to read show pigs. I came to Tarleton and judged
livestock my first two years here, traveling the country and represented myself and my school
helped me meet a lot of contacts and people knew my name from it even though we never
met. Judging collegiately helped me use my knowledge of show animals and take it to the next
level. Also saying that I judged collegiately gets you a foot in the door with most top breeders.
Putting on the judging contest helped me in another way, it taught me how to better work with
kids and their Ag teachers. Being able to work with them helped me gain connections for being
able to sell the animals that I breed.
Interconectedness:
For me personally I think the three above sections have all proven to play a major role in the
work I have been doing the last couple months in my internship. The animal science classes
gave me the basic knowledge of swine reproduction and managing a herd while the show side
and livestock judging of my life helped me with knowing the showpig industry and how to
correctly evaluate them. And to follow up communications, math and ag business classes
helped with the nitty gritty parts of the job to make it a professional operation and a
prestigious one too.
Global Awareness and Broader Implications:
The biggest stereotype and assumptions that are made by people around the world is that they
think we mistreat and abuse our animals. That is a huge lie. We wash, feed, exercise and
pamper our show animals daily and give them very nice living conditions. PETA is one of the
biggest groups that is hurting our industry. They think they know what we do and how we
manage our herds but they have absolutely no idea. That’s why they are trying to ban
stockshows and the exhibiting of animals. I can understand where they are coming from if we
were actually causing harm to our animals but we are not. The problem is that a lot of people
think they know everything about anything when they don’t have the slightest clue. Those
people need to come see our places and see how we manage our animals on a daily bases. If
they did that then there wouldn’t be an organization trying to stop it. Stockshows not only help
people business wise for breeders but it helps these kids learn responsibilities, work ethic, drive
to achieve success, and be able to work on a project for a long time and have the feeling of
accomplishment when it is over. I think people need to take that into consideration as well
because the kids is what it is all about at the end of the day.