Students learn about ag careers during skills sessions at WCFA

NORMAL, Ill. — About 400 young ladies connected with professional women to learn about numerous agricultural careers during the Women Changing the Face of Agriculture event.

“We are happy you are here today and we want to give you tools for your toolbox to make decisions because in four to five years you are going to be entering your career,” said Gayle Baker, co-chairperson of the event hosted by Illinois Agri-Women.

The event, held at Heartland Community College, featured several activities for the high school students including ag skills sessions that talked about various topics including plant science careers.

Kelly Grief is the quality control lab manager at Wyffels Hybrids. She studied at Iowa State University and completed a double major in seed science and agriculture and society.

“For students who are trying to figure out what they want to major in, look at the course catalog and it will tell you every class you need to take for that major,” she said. “If a lot of classes sound like something you don’t want to take, it is probably not the major for you.”

After college, Grief worked at a seed lab for a year.

“Then I was able to take the registered seed technologist certification because you have to be working at a seed lab to do it,” she said. “There are 114 of us in the U.S.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires the certification for people who work in certified labs.

“This is definitely a good career path because you are going to get recruited a lot to work in seed testing,” Grief said.

Germination is one aspect of seed testing.

“The Federal Seed Act requires all seeds grown in the U.S. have a germination and purity percentage on the bag,” Grief said. “It is about truth in labeling and providing assurance to the customer that the seed they purchase will germinate and grow as expected.”

During a germination test, Grief said, technicians look at 100 seedlings and pull out anything that has a defect on it or looks bad.

“I pull out the ones that are not the same as everything else,” she said.

Seed identification is also part of seed quality testing.

“We usually look at the family, genus and species,” the lab manager said. “For example, there is only one Zea mays, which is corn.”

Grief explained how to use a dichotomous key for seed identification.

“You start by examining the seed and look at the questions to see if it answers Question A or Question B better and you keep going until you hit the species or it no longer fits the key and you have to start over,” she said.

Seed quality testing, Grief said, is a great way to be involved in a data-driven, plant-focused, ag-based career, without being in the field or on a farm.

“You don’t want things to go wrong, but I love investigating when things go wrong,” she said. “We stain seeds to see damage and the current stain we have is not working very well so we are trying all these different things to see what will work.”

AI Technician

In the artificial insemination session, Bailey Rogers, associate director of agriculture at Heartland Community College, demonstrated the AI process for cattle.

“Women are highly valued as AI technicians because women typically haver smaller hands than men,” she said. “When you are putting your hand inside of an animal, the smoother you can make that process, the better it is.”

For AI, semen from a male animal is harvested and frozen in straws at very cold temperatures in liquid nitrogen.

“Then the semen can be transferred across the country and potentially across the world,” Rogers said.

“The semen in the straw is frozen so if you put it right into the animal, that will kill all the cells and she will not get pregnant,” she said. “So, you put the straw in water to slowly warm it up, about one minute and then load it into the AI gun.”

Rogers put on a shoulder length sleeve for the AI process and used a simulator for the demonstration.

“You don’t want her to get any diseases inside of her reproductive tract,” Rogers said. “Insert the AI gun into the vagina and all the way through until you reach the cervix that has three rings so it will be really tight because that is what protects the uterine horns.”

“The further you get in, the higher chances of sperm survival and fertilization of her egg,” she said. “Deposit the semen in the uterine horns and pull the AI gun back out.”

Working as an AI technician does not require a college degree.

“It is a certification and you can get paid from $100 to $150 per hour to do this,” Rogers said. “Oftentimes it is encouraged to have an animal science or biology degree, so you understand the reproductive system.”

Rogers studied animal science at North Dakota State University.

“I learned about AI in the reproduction class,” she said. “We used reproductive tracts that were harvested from animals to practice AI.”