Dairy science

ALS 3134: Livestock and the Environment

This guide was designed to help you 1) find people you can talk to and 2) provide resources to help you talk to people you don't know. Although this guide is not comprehensive, it is designed as a starting point to show a few of the many sources available to you.

Who to talk to?

Think about what it is you want to know. Is it about farm management styles, feeding systems to implement, agricultural waste management, etc? Answering these types of questions will help you locate the best places to find people who can best answer your questions.

Resources to use to find people to talk to:

Many organizations will provide names of board members, association members, or general directories, which can provide contact information to people who can offer help in answering your questions or discuss topics of interest with. Use the “contact us” (when available) or search the site for member information. You might also need to search for a person's or farm's contact information using a search engine (e.g. Google).

Farm Organizations

• American Farm Bureau
  • List of state farm bureaus (click on the state)
    • North Carolina Farm Bureau
    • Virginia Farm Bureau
• National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA)
  • List of state agencies

Beef

• Beef.org - provides links to web sites funded by the Cattlemen's Beef Board and the Federation of State Beef Councils.
• Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board
  • Board members
  • State Beef Councils
    • Virginia Beef Industry Council
• National Cattlemen's Beef Association
  • State afiliates

Dairy

• American Dairy Science Association - while there is a member directory, you must be a member to access it (undergraduate students can join the association for $5.00).
• Carolina Virginia Dairy Products Association
• Dairy Council Directory this page of the National Dairy Council provides contact information to dairy groups by state as well as spokespeople you can contact in the state organizations. Included in this directory are:
  • American Dairy Association & Dairy Council, Inc. (ADADC) (primarily for dairy farmers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania).
  • SUDIA - Southeast United Dairy Industry Association, Inc.
• Dairy Management Inc. is a portal site to several initiatives created by farmers, for farmers to promote dairy products in the U.S.
• Dairy Practices Council
• Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association

Hogs/Swine

• National Pork Board
• National Pork Producers Council
  • State associations

Poultry & Eggs

• American Egg Board
• National Chicken Council
  • Allied industry members
  • Allied industry leaders
• National Turkey Federation
  • List of members
  • Under the "about" page you can also find state and other poultry associations
• Virginia Poultry Federation
• Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative
• U.S. Poultry & Egg Association

Environmental Organizations

To find contact information for different groups, you might need to look for links such as "members," "offices," "partners," etc. The"contact us" section might also have additional names or groups to contact instead of just one general email or phone number and address (though that can sometimes be useful too).

• Chesapeake Bay Foundation
• Environmental Defense Fund
• National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
• USFWS Management Offices - State, Territorial, & Tribal

The groups listed above represent a small sector of associations, it is by no means comprehensive. To find other organizations/associations, try using the terms “association” or “council” or "cooperative" or "foundation" with your other keywords..

How do you talk to people you don’t know?

There are a number of resources available to help you develop your communication style and interviewing techniques. These are just a few to help get you started.

Web resources you can use to develop or improve your interviewing techniques:

• Academic Research Interviewing (from Penn State)
• Conducting an Interview (ppt presentation from Purdue University)
• Interviewing (from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)

Materials in the library:

• The craft of interviewing / John Brady.
• Field and laboratory investigations in agroecology / Stephen R. Gliessman ; edited by Eric W. Engles.
  • particularly pages 295-300, Investigation 23: Farmer interview
• Gathering facts from interviews [videorecording] / producer, Jean Burke ; director, Terry Lewis. (14 minutes)
• A guide to qualitative field research / Carol A. Bailey.
  • particularly pages 95-112, Chapter 7: Interviewing
• Research methods in anthropology : qualitative and quantitative approaches / H. Russell Bernard.
  • particularly pages 208-236, Unstructured and semi-structured interviewing.
• The student journalist and interviewing / by Hazel Presson.
• Talk straight, listen carefully : the art of interviewing / M.L. Stein, Susan F. Paterno.

There are also several items on the web and in the library that deal with "the art of conversation" such as http://www.abac.edu/lfelton/2292_conversation.pdf. You can also use the CommLab (located on the 1st floor of the library) where you can further develop your conversation and listening skills.