This January during the 2016 Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show, the National Cattlemen’s Foundation will present two graduate students with the W.D. Farr Scholarship. Each will receive a $12,000 scholarship to pursue careers in meat science and animal agriculture. The deserving students are Whitney Crossland of Texas A&M University and Greta Krafsur of Colorado State University. We will meet and get to chat with them come January.
Crossland, of Denton, Texas, is a student at Texas A&M University studying the feeding application of ethanol by-products and the effects of commercial feed additives on the ruminant microbiome. She plans to use her scholarship for international travel to gain a global understanding of beef production.
Crossland received both her Bachelor of Science in animal nutrition and Master of Science in ruminant nutrition from Texas A&M University. Over the last ten years she has worked in numerous capacities, including as a graduate teaching and research assistant, livestock pharmaceutical saleswoman, and marketing coordinator.
Krafsur is from Estelline, S. D., and is a Ph.D. student at Colorado State University, using her veterinary pathology training to explain the development of bovine high-mountain disease, known as Brisket Disease. She hopes to identify the biomarkers associated with the phenotype that can be used to predict disease risk, with the goal of improving selective breeding, precondition, and fattening regimens.
Krafsur received her Master of Science from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University. She will continue the family tradition and start her own cow-calf herd.