Thursday afternoon we had a seminar based on body language. The Interns and I had a lot of fun learning body language and what it means from Ann Randeris, the intern coordinator. I was very interesting to sit and talk about what different movements and gestures mean, while watching others do that same pose sitting there. We all had a few laughs throughout the hour and enjoyed our time away from the farm.
Friday we all visited Boehringer-Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI or BI) in Ames, Iowa. Our farms use a lot of their vaccinations on our pigs and they have done a lot of work with us through the summer such as the shooting range, and the oral vaccination sessions (in previous posts). We got to learn about how vaccines are made, the processes it takes, how long the process is, and how much it costs to run these vaccine tests and analyses. We also got to tour their diagnostic lab where there were multiple people working on different tests. They do a lot of ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) and PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests in this lab. They receive blood and tissue samples from hogs around the US to process and determine if their drugs/vaccines are working correctly. I learned a lot about vaccines and everything that goes with them yesterday and it was a really good experience to be a part of. Laura and I got to experience a ride in the back of an open-topped jeep all the way back from Ames to Audubon. It was quite the experience for both of us. (see pictures below)....... =/
Next week I am winding down my project at the barn. We present our project presentations on August 3, which is considered our last day. I plan on staying at my farm until August 8 to draw out more time to finish a majority of my project before I return to school. When I present on the 3rd I will only be presenting raw data and a few charts and graphs that will not include all of my data. The data I am collecting will go well into September due to me collecting data from gestation, farrowing, and the breeding line. All together my data collecting for a single group of sows takes 6 weeks. I have 2 groups of sows that have not even entered into farrowing yet, so I will JUST be getting done with the farrowing when I am ready to leave in August. The barn crew will finish out my project for me. I am very excited to be getting near the end and extremely excited to start putting some data into charts. I look forward to seeing what my research presents and if our hypotheses were correct or not. I'll let you know more about my project when I start making "pre-mature" conclusions of non-finished data, next week.
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