Some Udder Thoughts

Introduction.

Each fall, as the sun goes down faster and faster and comes up later and later, I find it difficult to stay on my sleep schedule. Because of that, I am writing this much later on a Sunday evening than I should be. I woke up late and now I can’t sleep tonight so… forgive me for the spelling errors you’re sure to find!

What’s new in dairy science?

This week, I am excited to recognize a student that has worked with me for 2 years. Lolita Vandevoorde recently published her undergraduate research in JDS Communications. Tita has spent a lot of time studying the rumen tissue and the cells that reside there. What has she learned?

Tita’s project followed up on our previous research and sought to define what type of T cells live in the tissue of the rumen. She demonstrated that most of the T cells in the rumen are a type called “gamma-delta” (γδ) T cells. This is a very interesting finding because these cells are very prominent in ruminants, more so than other species. They also can have a variety of effects such as promoting tissue resolution and dampening inflammation. We don’t know for certain what these cells are doing in the rumen tissue but we’re hoping to find out soon.

There is a ton we still need to learn about what these immune cells are doing in the rumen. I think they may help maintain the tissue barrier, help repair it, or manage some of the microbiome-host crosstalk that occurs in the gut. We’re excited to continue digging into this story!

Read the entire article here: https://doi.org/10.3168/jdsc.2025-0838

Leadership, growth, and development.

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to a meeting where folks who study dairy cattle lactation and nutrition get together to talk about their ongoing research, brainstorm future ideas, and hopefully, come home with new collaborative opportunities. This meeting certainly led to new opportunities for research with some new ideas brewing in my mind but I think it left me with one important reminder.

A few of us at this meeting are early-career faculty who are trying to find our way. At the end of the meeting, a few of us talked about how we were so impressed by some of the presentations and that we felt behind because we did not know what someone else knew about their particular topic. As we talked, I realized each of us wants to be good researcher, we want to know as much as we can so we can help in our own way. What is hard to remember is that you cannot be everything to everybody all the time in every place. You each have unique skills and knowledge that you bring to the table; you’ll have your chance to bring those skills to bare. Others will also get their own opportunities, too. You can’t expect to bring ALL the skills and knowledge to the table all of the time.

I think this is an easy trap to fall into from time to time. We assume that to be good, or the best, at whatever we choose to do means that we have to know everything and be the best at all of it. That is just not the case. Tom Brady was a great quarterback, but he was a slow moving pocket passer. He couldn’t run like Lamar Jackson can, but he didn’t need to. He knew his skill set. You need to know yours.

You can choose to be upset or frustrated because you don’t know it all or cannot do it all. Better yet, you can choose to be curious and learn from those who know more or have a skill you don’t have. Which do you think is the better path?

Final Thoughts.

Enjoy the fall weather. Stay safe if you’re harvesting crops. Most of all, go out and enjoy the day! We only get it once, so make it great.