Joe Berry, extension poultry specialist, teaches the poultry production class, as well as poultry judging and special problems. Berry, who received his doctorate from Kansas State University, taught at Purdue University for 10 years before coming to OSU in 1980.
Animal science majors are required to enroll in two animal production courses from a variety of species, with one being poultry. The average enrollment in this class is 35 students each fall semester.
“Some students have never even seen a live chicken, while others have handled them most of their lives,” said Berry. “Despite these differences, everybody starts from the same place.”
The students learn the history of the poultry industry, the process of raising, breeding and taking care of chickens, as well as the commercial side of the industry.
After learning about the industry, students experience it firsthand as the class takes field trips to some of the top poultry producers, such as Peterson Farms, Mahard Egg Farm, Simmons Foods and Tyson Foods.
During the semester, the students also have a little hands-on work of their own. Each student cares for and feeds the layer hens that are delivered to the farm. They feed, water and clean the houses on a daily basis.
“I really enjoyed this class,” said Joshua Posey, animal science alumnus. “It taught so much new information that I was unaware of. I would recommend this class to anyone.”
Apart from the class, OSU students also have the opportunity to be a part of the poultry judging program. Unlike the livestock, meat or horse judging teams, the poultry team only attends one contest each semester. In the fall, members attend the National Collegiate Contest at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark., and in the spring they travel to Baton Rouge, La., to the Southern Collegiate contest.
While competing in the contests, the students are scored on how they judge both live birds and poultry products.
“I had a great time this semester on the judging team,” said Thomas Loafman, business junior. “We had a great time at the contest, and I learned a lot through this entire semester.”
The judging team and production class have helped students learn about the industry and prepare for careers that aren’t for the birds.
At OSU’s poultry farm, you can see rows of what look almost like large water bottles with different gadgets hanging inside of them. However, looks can be deceiving, as these happen to be some of the latest technology in poultry research.
Known as metabolic chambers, they help provide insights into factors influencing feed conversion under a variety of environmental conditions, heat stress, altitude and vaccination regimens, as well as “normal” Oklahoma conditions – whatever those are. All in all, the data is evolving toward the development of a new poultry production system.
Bob Teeter, professor of animal science, and his graduate students are conducting unparalleled research in this area.
“One of my former students and I were at a scientific meeting in Atlanta and had looked at several presentations and discussions,“ said Teeter. “We discussed how nice it would be if we could really measure what’s going on inside the bird in terms of energy metabolism. So, we sat down outside in a little corner of the hallway and designed the whole system in about half an hour. We got so excited about it that by the time we got back to campus, we were looking for ways to implement it.”
And implement it they did. Teeter and his students sat down and discussed how they could build the chambers.
“We were having a brainstorming session. At that time I had eight graduate students, and we were trying to figure out how to build the metabolic chamber,” said Teeter. “I had one student say that he had worked with Plexiglass in a glass shop, one had worked with wiring and electronics, and another one said he hadn’t worked with anything but was willing to work. The students all chipped in and were able to get some grants to purchase the equipment. Everything you see has been built by students and used by students.”
The Rosalyn Institute in Scotland is the only other facility that houses these chambers. However, the facility is much smaller with only six chambers compared to OSU’s 60 chambers, making OSU, the largest project in the world.
“It takes them [the Rosalyn Institute] 10 weeks to do what we can do with our 60 chambers in two weeks,” said Teeter. “The amount of data we can produce is quite large.”
Researchers run from 10 to 15 studies in the chambers each year, the shortest test runs around a week and the longest spans about 49 days.
These studies place a lot of emphasis on Oklahoma. They develop technology for Oklahoma first, as well as developing an array of environmentally orientated technologies that can be applied throughout the world.
The latest use of these technology applications is for a top poultry company, Cobb-Vantress. It has used some of these technologies in its broiler production manual. OSU’s goal with this research is to illustrate to poultry producers in Oklahoma and around the world why they need to treat the birds the way they do under stress.
“It’s one thing to tell someone that when this happens do this or if this happens do that,” said Teeter. “It’s another thing to give them the information that explains to them the physiological and metabolic base for what they are doing and then let them fine tune it in the field. That is what we are trying to do.”
One area of research OSU is currently working on is the effect of altitude on feed efficiency in the chickens. Using the metabolic chambers, they can simulate altitudes up to 10,000 feet.
“In each of the three rooms, we are able to go from sea level to as high as 10,000 feet in mimicking altitude,” said Teeter. “We have also had a student try to produce birds at 500 feet below sea level, so we had an oxygen-enriched environment for those animals with a little bit of a higher pressure for those animals to grow in.”
The chambers are also able to simulate weather conditions from the deserts of Saudi Arabia to the jungles of Columbia. They measure the bird’s ability to produce a product with minimal energy waste. As a result, one might say the bird is more environmentally tolerant and friendly in that it produces less greenhouse gasses, said Teeter.
While conducting trials on heat stress of the bird’s whole body, researchers record metabolic measurements as well as changes in respiration rate and evaporative cooling. The normal respiration rate of a chicken is 30 to 40 breaths per minute. However, when heat stress is induced, researchers recorded rates of up to 300 breaths per minute.
“The unit that we have has an algorithm in it whereby we can compute the lean and lipid content on an animal,” said Teeter.
“We have our own equations for taking this data and converting it into a reality for broiler composition. We are able to get an intermediate composition and then put them back into their cages and let them grow. Then we are able to get another composition of them and get the actual tissue gain in various increments of time throughout their growth curve.”
There are currently five students who are involved with poultry research.
“Our research is only as good as the students we have,” said Teeter. “It’s been a long time since I have put my name first on a research article. I believe in letting the students get all the credit for what they do.”
All of the research done by Teeter and his students has been recognized on national and international levels.
Teeter has a true sense of teaching, as he desires his students receive the credit they deserve and get the right education.
“It’s my goal to put the students first,” said Teeter.
One of his students was recently asked to give a presentation about his research at a scientific meeting in Hamburg, Germany.
Along with research, Teeter, who has his doctorate in ruminant nutrition, teaches two graduate courses. He teaches vitamin and mineral nutrition, as well as advanced non-ruminant nutrition. He has been on the faculty at OSU for 20 years.
This program has been successful because individuals and companies have trusted OSU in their vision and have had the opportunity to see the work that has been produced by Teeter and his graduate students.
“This program was built by the students of the past,” said Teeter. “The students of the present stand on the shoulders of the ones of the past, and our pyramid keeps getting taller.”