Poultry Courses Research Articles

Return to the poultry industries when poultry scholarship recipients choose non-poultry careers

Agricultural commodity group scholarships are viewed as recruitment tools. Career choices of poultry scholarship recipients on the west coast of the USA were analysed. Responses of recipients who entered non-poultry careers included reports of how they use information from mandated poultry courses, how they informally educate others about poultry, and how they volunteer with poultry youth programmes. Teachers told of using poultry examples in class. Other professionals gave accounts of disseminating positive poultry information in the course of their work. Poultry and other agricultural trade associations realise many unforeseen benefits by supporting worthy students, even when the students do not enter an agricultural career.

Providing credentials to our graduates

Provision of meaningful professional credentials to Poultry Science graduates requires the sharing of expertise among a number of departments. Increased access to specialized poultry courses will assist in assuring that all graduates have excellent technical credentials. Greater access could be brought about through distance learning materials developed on a regional basis. Professional credentials will protect the marketability of our graduates in a changing industry and provide them a starting point for continued professional development. All departments, large and small, can claim an essential niche in the instruction and examination process. Another benefit is that to maintain their professional status, graduates would periodically participate in seminars and short courses and be encouraged to maintain active memberships in associations such as the Poultry Science Association.

A Survey of Poultry Curricula

The 1987 Poultry Science Association Teaching Committee recommended that a curriculum survey be conducted of the various institutions offering an undergraduate degree in poultry science. In 1992, a survey was conducted to “identify the extent to which modern educational technology is employed in the education of future poultry scientists.” At the time of the survey there were 16 institutions in the U.S. and Canada offering undergraduate degrees in poultry science. The number and type of required poultry courses varied greatly among the programs. There were 10 different types of management courses offered at the various institutions. Almost all of the programs required the students to enroll in an undergraduate seminar course. Half of the institutions required their poultry majors to take at least one microcomputer course, and more than a third required a basic statistics course. Most programs offered several options within a degree program.

Role of Teaching Programs

The poultry programs of the future will need to emphasize reviewing and updating of their curricula, to determine what courses need to be offered and course content. Extra effort is needed to bridge the gap between business and science. Poultry science graduates need to understand both the scientific and business aspects of the poultry industry. This gap can be bridged by requiring more courses in the business area and by stressing problem solving, projections, and case studies in poultry courses. The formation of industry advisory boards can help poultry science departments strengthen their industry relationships by developing a stronger curriculum and by recruiting students. Student recruitment should be the goal of every faculty member. Resources need to be directed towards the recruitment effort, with the poultry science departments taking direct responsibility for their recruitment programs.

A Comparison of Undergraduate Poultry Science Programs

Information was requested from 31 departments relative to their undergraduate programs leading to a major in poultry science. Responses were received from 17 departments offering a major or major emphasis in poultry science. The number of credits in poultry science indicated as being required for a major ranged from 15 to 51 quarter-hour equivalents with an average of 32 hours.Coursework required or “taken by most” undergraduate poultry science students at the 17 universities offering a major, or major emphasis, in poultry science included: Introductory Poultry Science, 12 departments; Nutrition, 16; Physiology/Biology, 14; Diseases, 13; Incubation/Brooding, 6; Genetics/Breeding, 14; Products Technology, 14; and Production Management, 16 departments. The number of credits in each area varied considerably among departments. About one-third of the credits in nutrition and genetics/breeding were reported to be interdepartmental offerings. Eight of the 17 departments offer courses in poultry judging and 10 offer credit for internships or work experience programs.Among eight responding departments offering courses, but no major in poultry science, six offered an introductory poultry course, three a poultry nutrition course, and three a production/management course.

Letter: Poultry courses and listing as inspector.

Letter: Poultry courses and listing as inspector.

Nunc Dimittis

F. Leslie Wood died suddenly on March 21 at his home in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.In 1910 and 1912 he attended short courses at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College at Truro, and in 1913 he entered the two year course, graduating in 1915, winning the Governor General’s medal for highest standing. After working with the Provincial Department of Agriculture he entered the Ontario Agricultural College and received a B.S.A. degree in 1921.Following graduation he was appointed Superintendent of the Poultry Branch, New Brunswick Department of Agriculture. The title was later changed to Director of the Poultry Branch and he held this position until his retirement in 1959.During World War II a poultry course was inaugurated in 1942 by the Educational Services of the Canadian Legion for returned men, and Mr. Wood prepared the text. For this and other special duties performed during the war years he was .

A Class Participation Project in Poultry Breeding

LABORATORY sections of introductory poultry courses should be taught in such a way as to be both stimulating and interesting. Student participation can be utilized to a high degree if laboratory sessions are planned accordingly. In a recent attempt to improve undergraduate poultry instruction at the University of Wisconsin, an opportunity was afforded to utilize these principles in the designing of a new laboratory session in poultry breeding geared to the introductory student level.Eggs from at least ten unusual breeds or varieties are purchased every January. The eggs are normally delivered around the middle of February for hatching in early March. Varieties are selected which will demonstrate such factors as different skin colors, feather colors and patterns, and comb types to function as a part of a breed and variety identification exercise which is held during the second laboratory session each year. Since these birds are kept through their…

Poultry Courses Offered by Poultry Departments of Land Grant Colleges in the United States

THIS paper reports the courses offered by Departments of Poultry Husbandry in the Land Grant Colleges of the United States during the year 1952–1953. The information was assembled from catalogs listing courses and from correspondence with heads of poultry departments. Not all of these courses are taught during any one year. Some institutions very likely changed some courses during the year or by the time this article is published.An effort was made to classify the courses into major subject matter divisions. Some leeway was exercised in classifying courses of similar subject matter. In the table the number of institions offering the courses listed are given.Most institutions offer, besides a general course, courses in anatomy or physiology or closely related subjects, breeding or genetics, feeding or nutrition, incubation and brooding, judging or selection, management, marketing, problems, research, seminar, and turkey production or closely related meat production. Though there …

Poultry Husbandry Practices

POULTRY Husbandry Practices” was a course planned at the request of the instructors in Agricultural Education to meet the particular needs of future high school teachers. Prior to the offering of this course, the only instruction that these students received in poultry was the introductory course “Poultry Husbandry 5,” which consists of two lectures and one demonstration per week for a semester of fifteen weeks. The instructors in Agricultural Education felt that their students needed some additional training in Poultry Husbandry, but the students had such a heavy load of required courses that they could not include several poultry courses. From this was evolved the idea that, after taking Poultry Husbandry 5, these students be required to take Poultry Husbandry 6, a laboratory course of one two-hour laboratory period per week, which would give them actual practice in those operations on the poultry farm that they would most likely have .

Thought Question—Discussion Technique in Teaching Introductory Poultry Husbandry

THE introductory course in poultry husbandry at the University of Georgia is required of all freshman students in the College of Agriculture. It is an intensive course which meets five days a week foreleven weeks (one quarter). Since this is the first and last poultry course that many students will take, it must be primarily a survey of poultry production; and, since most of the students have not had much background in biology, this course must also present sufficient information in poultry biology to give the student an insight into the fowl as a living organism. The objective of this course, then, is to develop some of the most important aspects of poultry culture together with some of the fundamental biological principles which are necessary in order to understand the reasoning behind recommended poultry practices.In the past the traditional approach to this problem has been used. A group of .

What the G. I. Student Wants in Poultry Instruction

THE outstanding characteristics of the average G. I. enrolled in college today are his convictions concerning the instruction he wishes to receive and his willingness to make any necessary sacrifices to achieve his goal. He has already had a wider and more intense life experience and is older than a student fresh from high school, therefore is attending college for the serious purpose of training for a profession rather than for a good time socially. He does little complaining about living in a one-room trailer or third floor apartment, but is wasting little time getting his education. Many G. I.’s carry all the credits their respective deans will permit.At the end of the past semester, approximately 300 major and non-major poultry students enrolled in courses, taught by the writer at Kansas State College, were asked to state their preference of material included in these poultry courses. Though the students .

Poultry Husbandry in the Agricultural College Curriculum, Elective or Required

THOUGH the poultry industry has grown rapidly in the past decade, many college poultry departments have, for one reason or another, been unable to broaden their work with students. Despite the facts that the poultry industry ranges from second to fourth in value of all agricultural products produced, and that any improvement in poultry methods benefits more farms than any other agricultural commodity, too many poultry departments have not kept pace with the rapidly expanding industry. To cite just one example in some colleges the number and variety of poultry courses have not kept up with the industry. Other institutions have found that too rapid multiplication of poultry courses has resulted in too few students in proportion to the number of advanced courses offered. In view of this situation, it is well to consider available information and to promote thought on this problem.A 1931 survey of 21 agricultural colleges .

Adaptation of the Introductory Course in Poultry Husbandry

THE older members of Poultry Science Association are familiar with the problems confronting the instructor in charge of the general or introductory poultry course required of all students in Agrictulture and Veterinary Medicine in the Land Grant Colleges. For the benefit of the younger men, permit me to enumerate some of the problems.Many students who are not interested in the subject are enrolled in required courses. Such courses not only include students of varied interests and activities who expect to major in one of a half-dozen or more different departments, and in veterinary medicine, but the group may often include freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, which further complicates matters. Some of these students come to class with an excellent foundation in poultry husbandry gained through their 4-H Club or their vocational agriculture experience. Along with these students who are easy to interest, may be others who have no love .

Editorial

The colleges and universities on this continent have greatly increased as to student enrollment until at the present time a vast army of young men and women are pursuing courses of collegiate grade. It is important and interesting to find that the number of university students taking courses in poultry has increased along with the general tendency to increase university attendance. This places a great responsibility upon the instructors and investigators who make up the active membership of Poultry Science Association.Our university students elect poultry courses in some instances because they look forward to participation in some way, and in some part in the industry of poultry and egg production or the distribution of those products. Such students should be trained soundly and carefully along what might be termed, perhaps, vocational lines. They must know how to produce and to distribute the products of the poultry plant, but if .

Teaching a Required Poultry Course

Poultry Husbandry has been taught in our leading agricultural colleges for many years, but we are just beginning to give time and thought to the proper methods to be used in presenting such a subject to the student, and in getting him to learn and retain what the instructors want him to know. For years we have poured out, to the aspiring youth, all our enthusiasms, knowledge and beliefs, hoping that he would soak up what flowed from us and become a good and successful poultryman. We have hoped that he was interested and thought that because we believed in certain things, he must also believe. We wanted him to be a good soldier in the ranks of the poultrymen and were disappointed if he was not a striking success or if he failed to follow Poultry Husbandry.It was with this method of teaching (lecturing) that we built up .

Poultry as a Required Course in the Agricultural Curriculum

Poultry is required of all four-year agricultural students at sixteen of the forty-four state colleges offering poultry instruction, according to information obtained from college catalogs (1921–1922) and private reports from heads of Poultry departments. Two other state colleges (Iowa and Oklahoma) require poultry of all students majoring in Animal Husbandry, and the remaining twenty-six (sixty per cent) states place poultry in the elective list. Eight of the sixteen colleges require the poultry course of freshmen, six require it of sophomores, and two require it of juniors.The number of credits allowed in the different states for this required course varies from one to four. Four state colleges require one credit; two require two credits; nine require three credits; and one requires four credits. This is an average of 2.4 credits per course required at the sixteen colleges. The New Mexico State College requires one-half credit in poultry of all .

The Intercollegiate Poultry Judging Contest—1920

One of the fundamental parts of an education in Poultry Husbandry is the study of the various types and breeds of poultry. In the greater part of the schools and colleges now offering courses in poultry husbandry the judging of typical specimens of the best known varieties and breeds has become one of the important branches of such courses, because it is absolutely essential that every poultryman should have a clear working knowledge of the points that go to make up good birds. One of the best methods of stimulating the attainment of this feature of a poultry course is the bringing into the course of a certain amount of competitive judging, not only between members of a class, but between teams from the various institutions that are conducting similar courses. It was with this idea in mind that the American Association of Instructors and Investigators in Poultry Husbandry through .