Animal Science students Sindu Manoharan and Audrey Ervin help deliver a calf at the 2013 State Fair
Image Credit: Edwin Remsberg
While most Terps were likely spending the final days of summer lounging and relaxing before the start of the fall semester, a group of students from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR) was working around the clock throughout the 11 days of the Maryland State Fair in Timonium. Six animal science students interning at the state fair birthing center were charged with watching over expecting animals and helping to bring their babies into the world – all in front of crowds of onlookers.
“I was so excited to get to have this internship,” says junior animal science major Cara Murray. “We’re here from the crack of dawn until well after the sun goes down but the time flies.”
Murray and the rest of the birthing team were on call throughout the fair and had to be ready at a moment’s notice night or day to oversee animals in labor. When they weren’t assisting with live births, the students showed off piglets, newborn calves and just-hatched chicks and fielded questions from fairgoers.
“I just love interacting with the public and being able to answer their questions and share some things,” says senior Meghan O’Donnell. “They have some great questions. Honestly, I don’t always have the answers but I try to find them.”
Tom Hartsock, Ph.D., an associate professor emeritus from the College of AGNR, has been in charge of the state fair birthing center for the past 12 years. He too works all hours to take care of the mothers and their newborns.
“I’m fortunate to be able to sleep anywhere. Sometimes I can get some rest in the shed (next to the birthing center) – enough to get me through anyway,” says Hartsock. “The students make it fun so that’s what keeps me going.”
Two of the six students working inside the birthing center are returning members of the team tasked with helping the newer students learn the ins and outs of handling animals in labor.
“It’s a different perspective this year,” says Sindu Manoharan, a senior animal science major back for a second year at the state fair birthing center. “Now I’m leading the group and am able to teach the other students whereas last year I was the one learning. It’s been great.”
For each weekend of the state fair, six pregnant cows are transported to the birthing center. Additionally, 4-H students from different areas of the state volunteer to have their sows participate as well. Often, Hartsock will use drugs to induce the animals’ labors so that they coincide with peak hours at the fair – giving more people an opportunity to witness firsthand the miracle of life. However, he can only control the timing to a point. He and the students are often up throughout the night waiting for the newborns to arrive.
Through social media sites like Twitter and Instagram, the birthing center team constantly updates interested fairgoers about what’s going on inside the barn, letting people know when a birth is imminent in order to draw a crowd for the blessed event or posting pictures of newborns and inviting passersby to stop in and say hello.
Even when the cows and pigs are not in active labor, two incubators full of hatching chicks ensure that something is always going on inside the birthing center.
“You can see the amazement in the kids’ eyes and it’s just so awesome,” says Murray. “A lot of the adults too sometimes have no idea what you’re talking about and are genuinely curious.”
The expecting cows that participated in the birthing center during this year’s state fair came from Kilby Cream Dairy Farm in Cecil County. Kilby also donated ice cream for the Maryland Young Farmer’s ice cream stand during the fair. Hartsock likes to encourage fairgoers visiting cows inside the birthing center to go outside and taste the ice cream made from their milk. “That’s one of my biggest joys – helping people from the city make the connection between their food and the people who provide it,” says Hartsock.
As for the students on the birthing center team, the long hours and loss of sleep were well worth the experience of ushering in dozens of new lives and helping the public enjoy the ride as well.
For more pictures of AGNR students in action at the state fair birthing center, check out our photo gallery from the 2013 MD State Fair!
