Exclusive: Meet Ellan Dufour

In this inspiring episode of "Coffee in the Barn," we dive deep with Ellan Dufour, a passionate dairy calf specialist from Hubbard Feeds, exploring her unique journey from city life to becoming an advocate for agribusiness. 
Ellen shares her experiences at the Next Generation Dairy Leaders Club, revealing insights into the challenges and camaraderie found in modern dairy farming. From discussing the surprisingly slow growth of clams to the realities of farm life, including the nuances of showering after a long day at the barn, Ellan's narrative is both enlightening and relatable. Furthermore, she delves into the complexities of animal nutrition and the importance of storytelling in agriculture, emphasizing the role of youth and outsiders in enriching the industry.

 Join us as we uncover the fascinating blend of science, passion, and community driving the future of dairy farming, all while navigating the quirks of technology and daily life.

 Your support can help us transform this passion project into a flourishing nonprofit aimed at empowering women in agribusiness. Subscribe for exclusive content and become part of our journey towards making a difference.

Transcript

Ellan

0:01:01

I'm sorry I had to bail on you last week. 

Morgan Okay, very busy. Were you in Florida for a conference? 

Ellan

Yeah, I was there, I'm part of this group called like the Next Generation Dairy Leaders Club and it's essentially this group, like young people in the dairy industry plus like young people that are going to take over their family dairies one day. And it's like large scale dairies, like probably top, like I don't know, 20,000 cows and up it seems like. So we get together twice a year and we just listen to some presentations, hang out, probably drink too much, and like share ideas and transition

0:01:42

plans and yeah, it's kind of like a little support group for young people in the industry which is really cool.

Morgan

0:01:48

Oh, that's awesome.

Ellan

0:01:49

Yeah, so we went to a couple dairy farms. We went to a clam farm, which was- Clam. Like yeah, which was super weird. I guess a clam, we learned it takes like 22 to 24 months for a clam to grow to like a size where you put it in a pasta dish. Like so long. 

Morgan

They grow the size of a quarter? 

Ellan

Pretty much, yeah, like a one inch clam, like chunk of meat.

Ellan

0:02:15

Very slow growers. 

Morgan What do they feed clams?

Ellan

 So I guess they just, they lease out like a couple acres from the government, which

Morgan

0:02:25

I didn't know,

Ellan

0:02:26

like in the ocean, I didn't know you could lease the ocean. And they fill these bags full of clams and you can like apparently overstock clams, just like you can like cattle or pigs.

 0:02:36

Morgan
Yeah.

Ellan
0:02:37

But they just dump them in there and the clams like dig into the soil and just filter feed.

0:02:42

Isn't that so bizarre?

Morgan

0:02:44

But it's very interesting.

Ellan

 Yeah. I never thought of how they grew clams. I thought they just like harvested them like naturally, right? Naturally, yeah. Like put eyes on them too. 

Morgan

Yeah, super weird. Interesting. I'm still trying to figure out my camera here. I'm uninstalling my one of my computers that my webcam. Oh, hold on, let me try it.

Ellan

0:03:05

There's flicker or something.

Morgan

0:03:07

Is it giving us life? No one even let me click on teens on the camera buttons.

Morgan

0:03:12

Come on! This is frustrating. I apologize. That's alright. We're not gonna use the video anyways. I even put a hat on and everything. Oh my gosh! You must not have showered today.

0:03:24

No! I will later, but not today.

0:03:26

Ha ha ha. Yeah. That's okay. I have to be at the barn tomorrow, so I'm just gonna shower at the barn. 

Ellan

You know what? Exactly. You might as well. You kind of have to plan it out. My husband, I came home from the barn last week, two weeks ago, and he's like, did you shower after being at the barn all day?

0:03:52

And I was like, yeah, why? He's like, well, because I just cleaned the sheets and I didn't want the smell of pig or sweatiness to be on the sheet.

0:04:03

Morgan

Nice.

Ellan

0:04:04

I mean, isn't that the truth of what we live in now?

0:04:09

Like even on, I was gonna change the sheets

0:04:12

before I went to Florida. And I was like, no, no, I think I'll just leave them. Cause when I get back, it's gonna be late and I'm gonna be like all plainy, you know? Like my hair is gonna have like plain air. I'm not gonna shower when I get back late at night.

Morgan

0:04:25

Right.

Ellan

0:04:26

I was like, I'll just change it on Sunday. But I just thought that was hilarious because I'm like, well of course, we have to shower in, and showering out is optional, but like, after working in the barn all day, you want to shower out. Right, like that's smell clings. Even though, pig, that was one thing I learned

Ellan

0:04:47

when I interned in Iowa for the summer. I was working on a 5,000 head sow farm. And after my internship, I came home and the smell of pig, I don't know what it is about it, but it just like sticks to wet hair. Like when my hair is dry, you won't smell it as bad, but as soon as I like took a shower, my hair smelled more like a pig than it did when it was dry.

Ellan

0:05:15

But I like, sweated the smell of pig for probably a solid two weeks.

Morgan

0:05:20

Oh my God!

Ellan

0:05:21

Like, I smelled like I was still in Iowa, but I hadn't been in a pig barn in like a week. 

Morgan

Ew! Gosh, and no offense, but pigs smell bad. They're even worse than like scouring cats, I think. Yeah. 

Ellan

Oh yeah it depends I think I don't know there's just something about pig manure that is just a lot stronger. Yeah. I'm not sure why. I mean maybe it's because cows are fed more like a corn and soybean meal. Like well cows are fed a high carbohydrate diet too. Yeah yeah

0:06:01

they are. I don't know if it's something, I don't know if the ruminants clears out some of that. Yeah, yeah, maybe.

Morgan

 So this week or today I just wanted to dig a little bit deeper into your background. Absolutely. Kind of how you got to where you are today and you kind of shared on the classroom podcast that that you didn't grow up in agriculture.

Ellan

0:06:29

Correct.

0:06:30

Morgan

And I'd like you to just kind of elaborate a little bit more on how you, or share your journey from a non-agricultural background to becoming such a passionate advocate for agriculture. 

Ellan

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think it's a pretty unique story, honestly, and I think there's more and more of us actually coming into the industry that really didn't come from agriculture, maybe do nothing about agriculture. And then, you know, throughout

0:06:54

Ellan

your life, you just, it's amazing how so many people now are channeling themselves into agriculture. So I grew up in a city, southeastern Alberta, it's called Medicine Hat, and it's it's about 60,000 people, so pretty decent size. My parents both worked in human health care, so I didn't really have much exposure to agriculture, you know, living in the city, having hospital working parents. I didn't have any exposure to agriculture or anything like that, even though I was kind of really in the middle of beef country and feedlot country, cow-calf country, and southeast Alberta. But yeah, as a kid growing up, I always knew I wanted to work with animals and honestly growing up in the

0:07:41

Ellan

city the only ways I knew how or the only things I was exposed to in order to work with animals is I had to be either a veterinarian, which I know is a common, common path for those who love working with animals, or number two, a zookeeper. Those are kind of the options that were laid out in front of a kid growing up in the city. So that was always that was kind of always on my docket is that I knew it was going to be animals no matter what. So I swam, I was a swimmer in high school and I ended up being recruited down to the University of Nebraska, which again coincidentally is like the heart of beef country in the United States. I went from beef country to beef country without really realizing it. Ended up in Nebraska and I majored in fisheries and wildlife.

0:08:27

Ellan

That was my undergraduate degree. Animal science minor with specializations in conservation biology and zoo animal care. So essentially a lot of fancy words for wanting to work with animals, but again, not really having any direction. And coincidentally, one summer when I was at the University of Nebraska,

0:08:47

Ellan

I was looking for some extra money to bring in over the summer and being an international student I couldn't work anywhere except on the university that's just the rules of being international unless it's like a specialized internship or something so I think gosh it must have been after my junior year college I was like, oh, okay, dairy cows, I like animals, let's do it. And basically for that summer, I worked for the animal science department

0:09:23

Ellan

and I helped the dairy grad students with their research, I helped them in the lab. I'd also helped the farm staff on milking the cows, feeding the cows, basically anything they needed me to do. The undergrad of course was dragged in. Sometimes the clean jobs, most times the dirty jobs. But honestly, that's what really sparked my interest in the world of dairy and the world of ruminants in general. I did not realize that dairy cows had nutritionists. I did not realize beef cows had nutritionists,

0:09:54

Ellan

swine had nutritionists, nothing, right? I wasn't exposed to any of it. So I caught the dairy bug. I fell in love with it and I was fortunate enough to then continue with that and do my master's degree at Nebraska in the ruminant nutrition lab with a dairy specialization. So it was very coincidental that just my love for animals led me into that direction and really opened my eyes to this whole new world that I knew nothing about. You know, coming in, I just, yeah, you're not exposed to it as a city kid. So I think it's really, really cool that now there seems to be more of a focus in our industry

0:10:32

of bringing in, I'll quote unquote, outside people, right, into the industry. And I think it brings a really different perspective as well on where our industry has been, where our industry is going. So it's been, it's definitely been a learning curve. If you asked me 10 years ago, if I thought I'd be a calf specialist going to farms all over the Midwest and helping farmers

0:10:52

with their animal production and calf performance. I would have giggled and laughed because, again, I had no idea this position existed. So it's been a pretty full journey, for sure. Oh, that's awesome. 

Morgan

Did you get your PhD as well or no? 

Ellan

I did not. No, I got my master's. I considered a PhD, actually.

0:11:12

I had some opportunities with the University of Wisconsin. But again, very coincidentally, I got this. I was in conversation for a Ph.D. and also in conversation with Hubbard for my current position. And I chose Hubbard. And I do not regret that decision whatsoever. It's it was good to get out there and get to go in and. Yeah, get out in the real world instead of stuck in academia

0:11:33

for another three to five years. Nothing against Ph.D. But it just wasn't for me at the time.

Morgan

0:11:40

Yeah.

Yeah, I can totally relate to that. I knew after my undergrad that I wanted to learn more and had more to offer to the industry, was looking for jobs, was presented the opportunity to work full-time at the Swine Research Center at Madison, as well as taking my classes and getting my master's. And so I was kind of able to kill two birds with one stone and I kind of after I was on my master's I just kind of knew I was kind of done

0:12:10

with school at that point and I was like if for any reason I want to go back and get my PhD I always can go back and maybe I'll find a company that'll pay for my PHD,

Ellan Right. 

Morgan

But I definitely don't think I would be, I think where I'm at today, I would be in the same spot, whether I had a PhD or not. But I might have gotten there a little bit sooner. Right. 

Ellan

Exactly. I,I had the exact same thought process of, you know, this position that seems very interesting and is really pulling you towards working in industry or getting out of school, that might be a once in a lifetime type opportunity. And you're right, PhD, they'll sit there and wait for you whenever you wanna go back.

0:13:00

But I agree, it sounds like you and I both had the same thought process there on making that decision. Not an easy one to make though, for sure. 

Morgan

Oh yeah, most definitely.

Yeah.

0:13:09

How long have you been with Hubbard? 

Ellan

So I have been with Hubbard. I actually just had my six year anniversary, which is, it has gone unbelievably fast. I feel like my first three years are very clear. I remember them very well. My most recent three years are like a blur. I don't know what that has to do with COVID or what, but it's been amazing that it's been six years already because it really feels like three, maybe four. I've been   

Morgan

0:13:48 Were you able to or growing up did you have any Ag (agriculture) related classes available to you during highschool

Ellan

Yeah, that’s a good question, and surprisingly and knowing the US system a little better since I’ve been here for what, almost 15 years, no, we did not. And again, I don't speak for all of Canada in that, but where I'm from in Medicine Hat, our school had zero agriculture type classes. And again, it's so unique because we literally are in the middle of beef country, you know, like huge packing plants, huge feedlots all surrounding, and it's almost like you're not born and raised into it, you just don't get the exposure. Never was there even an opportunity to go to a farm, whether it was beef or dairy or swine or you name it.

0:14:41

Ellan

It just never came up, so very, very surprising. And yeah, knowing the system down in the U.S., you know, especially in these rural towns and rural cities, that opportunity has really been growing  I think, even for cities like the Twin Cities where I live, it seems like there's more and more opportunity for these city kids to get out and experience agriculture in some sense. 

Morgan

Yeah, and I think that's really important now more than ever is helping to bridge that gap between agriculture and the consumer, as well as just the educational piece, how we raise animals, because how we do today is a lot different than we did 150 years ago.

Ellan

0:00:41

Right.

Ellan

0:15:32

Yeah, it's, it's amazing to see to the disconnect that still exists, unfortunately, between specifically the dairy industry and the city kids, you know. Like I said on the podcast, dairy unfortunately does a very, very bad job of telling our story. And our story is a wonderful story on how milk is produced and all these wonderful things from dairy and how amazing these animals are and how much pride our dairymen and our farmers take in raising strong, healthy, happy animals. We certainly need to do a better job at telling our story because it's awesome. It's an awesome story. 

Morgan 0:16:15

You mentioned that you were in a young dairy leadership group.

Are you involved in any other organizations or volunteer groups to kind of help better tell that story? 

0:16:27

Ellan

Yeah, yeah, recently, good question. Over the last few years, I've joined some clubs and some councils. The most recent one that I've joined is actually the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council. And it's a group that gets together once a year, typically in May or June.

0:16:45

And it's people from, I believe it's U.S. based right now, as it's a pretty brand new council, but it's a group of people, it's pretty small as of yet, I think maybe 150 to 200 members. And we get together once a year and we meet about, you know, pressing issues in the dairy welfare world. So we bring in nutritionists like myself, people on the research side and academia,

Ellan

0:17:10

veterinarians come in, packing plants come in, you know, big buyers for grocery stores come in, welfare specialists come in, and it's basically this huge conversation and discussion about, you know, how are we coming across to the industry? How do we need to tell our story better? Are there issues on the animal welfare side

0:17:29

that the dairy industry needs to address? And what changes can we make, not only to improve, you know, improve the health and well-being of our dairy cattle, but also to improve the public perception of the dairy industry as well. It's been a really cool group. I've only been with the group once. We're actually meeting in June in Kansas City.

0:17:50

But more and more people, it seems like, are getting involved with these councils and groups to have their voice heard, which is exciting. 

Morgan

That's awesome. Yeah. I know there's been a lot of talk around on the swine side, the Prop 12, and open gestation crates, open pen housing. Has there been any discussions on the, I know veal is a big topic on the dairy side, but is there any other larger animal welfare or sustainability topics that are currently going on within the dairy world? 

0:18:23

Ellan

Yeah, I would say the big one that's really been circling right now has been how we're raising our baby calves. So typically when a baby calf is born, she's left with her dam for a couple hours, usually

0:18:39

at most. And then we pull that calf and we raise her in an individual hutch or an individual pen inside a barn, meaning that she has plenty of space to bounce around and do her thing, but she's by herself in that pen. And that that unfortunately has poor. Customer, consumer perception, right, of these these baby calves being raised in a pen by itself, even though it can see and smell and look on other calves that are that are housed beside it, that's been a big area of research

Ellan

0:19:09

that's been going on on, OK, can we manage these calves in pair housing situations where you group two together so at least they have a buddy, right, in their pen with them, or can we expand that out to maybe six calves per pen or eight calves per pen, still of course giving them plenty of room to move around and jump around as they see fit and get away from their buddies even if they wanted to. So that's been a big area. Over in Europe, they're really starting to see the benefit of pair housing or they're not seeing it be detrimental, maybe I'll say, to calf health and calf performance. And I believe there's mandates now going on in Europe where dairymen will be required to at least pair house their baby calves through the first, I don't know if there's a timeline

0:19:55

on it, if it's maybe the first eight to 10 weeks of life, or if it's just until, you know, they're weaned from their starter program and moved into the next phase. But that is, that's something that's expected, I think, that's going to arrive in the US and North America probably within the next, oh, I'd say five to seven years is regulations on pair housing. So what's nice for us is typically with welfare issues, we look to Europe as, you know, the first sign of movement. If something's happening in Europe, we can typically prepare ourselves in North America

0:20:28

for those changes. And that being said, I do have a lot of dairymen that I work with that are moving towards that pair housing system. Number one, because calves are doing well, they're staying healthy, they're performing well. Number two, it's a little bit easier to manage a pair housing type situation.

0:20:45

And number three, they like the way it looks as well, right? With calves, they have a buddy and it's amazing when they move to that next phase, being herd animals, how much that bond and that pairing with that buddy really helps reduce stress on them as they move to the next phase of their life, which is pretty cool to see. 

Morgan 

Oh, most definitely.

0:21:05

I did not know that.

Ellan

0:21:10

I mean, it makes sense. It's been very interesting to see the changes coming and I think on the organic side too in the US if there's mandates coming it will be even sooner than the conventional dairy system. 

Morgan

So since you probably have a little bit you just mentioned the word organic can you kind of elaborate a little bit more on what that means on the on the dairy side like what does it mean to have organic milk or I don't know how else is dairy specifically labeled? 

0:21:43

Ellan

Yeah, good question. I don't know if I'm the perfect person to answer it just

because I don't I don't deal with any organic farms. But with the organic side you know essentially organic milk comes from cows that were fed only organic So organic alfalfa, organic corn, whatever the case may be. And being organic, they are not even using antibiotics on these animals. So yeah, because of the organic feed, it's very hard to come by, it's very expensive to get typically organic,

0:22:18

obviously a little bit more expensive because of that, because of the inputs going in. Cattle aren't as efficient on organic type systems again just because they're limited on what they can do in managing those animals. So yeah it's interesting I think there was a big increase in popularity in the organic milk side organic dairies recently and it seems like and we even talked about it at this meeting I was in in Florida last week is that the organic milk trend has kind of plateaued. It was going up for a while and then it really just kicked off and slowed down.

0:22:54

So I'd be surprised if that continued to increase. I think the fad of organic milk is probably starting to fade out a little bit. 

Morgan 

I feel like one fad, I wouldn't necessarily call it a fad, but one that seems to be increasing is the consumption of raw milk. 

Ellan 

Right. Yeah, which is, it's just weird, Morgan. I don't get it. I mean, I'm all about milk. I drink my milk. I drink and eat all the dairy products, but I don't know. There's just something about raw milk. It has to be managed almost exactly perfectly. 

Morgan Yeah. Before I would, before I would drink it. I don't know what your thoughts are on that. I have never had it.

Ellan

0:23:39

I have worked with some producers that supply it to either family or friends or trusted individuals or the one family that has the one cow and they just filter the milk and drink the raw milk from the cow. I think it's more because I want to say it's more on the Jersey milk or the Jersey cow, the milk that's produced from the Jersey cow being that it's a little bit higher in fat and just the composition of the milk is a little bit different than like a Holstein, right? But I

0:24:22

think the Jersey milk is a little bit easier to digest for those that are lactose intolerant. Morgan Interesting, okay. 

Ellan

0:24:28

Due to the protein composition of the milk. Don't quote me on that, but that's what I'm familiar with. But yeah, it's not talked about a lot. 

Morgan Yeah, it's interesting to see if this whole raw milk thing will continue.

Ellan

I just, it's hard for me to imagine a world where you can go up and buy raw milk from the grocery store, unpasteurized.

0:25:02

I just, I don't know how that would work. Maybe I'm just naive and have my blinders on to it, but it's... I don't know if that will ever be possible.

0:10:23

Yeah, yeah.

Morgan

0:10:25

It's more just going to be a who you know.

Ellan

0:10:28

Right, exactly. If you have someone who you trust and you're sourcing it right from Tina the cow, then maybe it's not something to shy away from. But yeah, in terms of mass production of raw milk on the grocery store shelves, I think it's highly unfeasible. 

Morgan

Yeah, I don't think that that is the regulation of that is, I don't know how that would work.

Ellan

0:10:52

Yeah.

Morgan

0:10:53

I think they say, watch, we're both going to be wrong and in five years it's only going to be wrong those.

Ellan

Well, I don't see that happening. But never say never. That's right. Never say never.

0:11:07

Stranger things have happened.

0:11:08

Yes. Yes.

Morgan

0:25:57

Since you didn’t grow up in ag, do you have any like turning points in your career, growing up or unexpected challenges that you've kind of had to overcome as a person that didn't grow up in ag? 

0:26:14

Ellan Yeah, yeah, that's a really good question. I would say that the biggest thing that I have faced and I still face is a lot of people I work with, a lot of customers I deal with, basically anybody I work with, has exposure to not only one area of agriculture, but a lot of areas of agriculture, right?

0:26:34

They're not just dairymen, they are farmers as well, they have crops, right? Or maybe they have a couple of beef cattle, or maybe they have some chickens hanging out. Regardless of what area of agriculture your primary focus is, if you're a farmer, there's always some other, you know, sticks in the fire or whatever, however you want to call it. So that's been one thing that's been very challenging for me is to build up the knowledge base because I know dairy, right? I really know dairy calves. And it's challenging for me,  to build up my knowledge base on talking about bushels of

Ellan

0:27:08

corn per acre or amount of rain or, you know, oh, the corn's tasseling or we need to go and till and all this stuff. That is a world that I have no exposure to. I was never taught about any of that in grad school because I was nutrition focused, but it's a very important thing to be able to talk about. So that's been very difficult. That's one thing, one hurdle that I'm still trying to slowly crawl over is kind of understanding little things about all the other things that are important in agriculture instead of just calf nutrition or calf management being a lot more broad in that sense. So, oh, it's tough. It's challenging, but I mean, six years in, still got a long ways to go.

Morgan

0:27:54

Yeah, I have the same, I would say that's one of the same challenges that I have, going out and meeting with customers, cause on the pig side, and most of the producers are raising their own corn, soybean meal, or they have a job outside of raising pigs. And how do you how do you stay knowledgeable and up-to-date on all of the farming related subsidies around that area that you're visiting for that 24-hour period. Right. It's nearly impossible.

Ellan

Yeah.

Ellan

0:28:41

Right. It really is. It's challenging. Yeah. Even on like, even on the veterinary side, you know, I'm sure you get this too as a member of a technical team, you are expected to know more about just nutrition, right? You're supposed to know a little bit about management, a little bit about health, regardless of the species you're working with. And it's like, well, heck, I have these producers saying, oh, you know, my calf has a little bit of diarrhea. What do I need to be doing? What can I give her to help? And it's like, well, shoot, I wasn't trained on this either. You know, but

0:29:09

that's that's one thing that is also really amazing about our industry is that you and I probably both know someone who will answer the phone and we can ask the dumb questions too and they'll support us and give us the answer we're looking for so we can relay that information. 

You know we expect to be wearing multiple hats and be you know what's the term I'm looking for? 

Morgan Jack of all trades? 

Ellan

Yeah the jack of all trades but it's nice to have people within our own company and even outside companies that can support us. Heck, even today when I sent you that note and I said, hey, do you have Bethany's phone number? You know, she works for a competitor company

 0:29:49
 like we've mentioned in the podcast, but heck, she's unbelievably intelligent. She brings a lot to the table and yeah, I'm gonna pick her brain on some stuff. So it's kind of cool that even working on opposite sides of the coin we can still come together and and work together as well. 

Morgan 

Yeah I mean in the end we're all all doing the same thing. 

Ellan

Right, right, we all have the same goal. Yeah. Right? So it's been cool. A horse, a backyard chicken, a cow,
 0:30:20
 or a pig. You know pretty much anyone that's involved in agriculture is working towards the same goal of how do we better our animals.

0:30:31
 So that's been that's also I guess been another unexpected thing. You know, having to know about corn and all that has been like the stressful part of it, but realizing that we're all in this together, regardless of species has been certainly a positive.

 0:30:44
 Most definitely.

Morgan
 0:30:45
 Do you have any, I was just going to kind of wrap up with one last question. Do you have any advice for kids in high school, college that want to get involved in agriculture or maybe didn't or individuals that don't have an agriculture background but would still like to get involved in ag? What would be your advice to them on how to just start? 

0:31:15

Ellan

 Yeah, that's a really good question. It can be hard to start. And I certainly felt that firsthand. You know, the best thing I ever did for myself,
 0:31:26
 and this was the advice of my master's degree advisor, once I graduated, he said, Ellen, you gotta go work on a farm for a little bit. You know, you need to get some kind of exposure. So I took his advice and I went and worked at an 1800 cow dairy for six months. And it was the hardest six months of my life, but it was also the best six months of my life because you really get that exposure. But in terms of say a high school student or, you know, a city kid or whoever it may

Ellan
 0:31:52
 be who wants to get involved is challenge your teachers, challenge your community outreach department or whatever to get yourself on a farm tour. You know, because farms all over the place are more than happy to bring in schools, if it's high school, if it's elementary, if it's like even like a basketball team. You know, we want to tell our story even though we need to improve on telling our story and we want to show off our animals in our farms. So I know it's not always easy. I know I can take a lot of planning, but really, yeah, just trying to get to a farm in some
 0:32:31
 capacity to just see what's going on. It's so cool.

Morgan

 Do you, do you think that because you kind of grew up as an athlete, do you, cause you got your master's in dairy nutrition?

Ellan
 0:32:43
 Yep.

Morgan
 0:32:44
 Correct. Do you think that kind of played a role into like your background and as an athlete kind of helped shape into animal nutrition? 

Ellan

You know, I never really thought about it that way, but now that you say those words out loud, I'm thinking, yeah, maybe it did, right? Because being an athlete, especially in college, we were really zeroed in on our nutrition. You know, we had a registered dietitian and nutritionist kind of watching us all like a hawk to make sure not only were we eating enough calories as swimmers, but also the correct calories and learning on how the calories we brought into our bodies were going to, you know, turn out in terms of muscles and efficiencies and whatever.

 0:33:32
 So yeah, now that you say that, It propbably did, unknowingly, and what’s really cool on the other side of the coin is that, you know, dairy cows are always described as athletes. You know, they don't look like athletes, right? They're these big bouldering cows with their big old bellies, but they are primed to produce
 milk, right?

Ellan
 0:33:57
 They really are. If you were to take a cow and put it in human form, it's an athlete for sure. So it's kind of cool how it maybe goes both ways on that. 

Morgan 

Yeah, I never really, because I was an athlete as well growing up and was always knowledgeable of the food I was eating and I didn't play collegiate sports, I just played club. So we didn’t have the resources that the pro college athletes had. Oh, that would have been hard to say pro. Pro, but the D1, D2 level athletes did.
 0:34:37
 But it's funny now, you know, especially, I know on the dairy side too, but on the pig side, feeding the mom of the animal, whether that's a cow or a pig, has, makes such an impact on the fetus and that growing animal inside that mom. And I think it wasn't until I became a mom myself and started working in agriculture and feeding that I realized how much of an overlap there is and just how important nutrition is for moms in developing, I don't want to say children, but human and livestock.

1
 0:35:22
 Right, and developing that baby, regardless of what species it is.

Ellan
 0:35:25
 Yeah.

Morgan
 0:35:26
 It's, I mean, yeah, it's amazing for pregnant women, pregnant animals, whatever, how their nutrition, even how their stress and management day to day can impact that fetal growth and that fetal development. That's something I guess never realized before I got in the industry either, is how much that plays a role in not only the short-term health of that baby, again, whatever species, but the long-term as well.
 0:35:57
 So it's pretty impactful. And down to just the what genes are expressed, the methylation of the DNA. Yeah. Like, oh man, you get me all excited talking about epigenetics and everything now. Well, we know that heat stress plays a big role on cows. Yeah. Same on pigs too. They have research on that in pigs as well, huh? I'm sure I don't know if they have research. We know that cows are not as productive during the summer because of heat stress.

4
 0:36:36
 Because they can't sweat.

1
 0:36:38
 You know, that's amazing too. Oh, sorry, go ahead. 

Ellan

I was going to say, because pigs, they don't sweat. So they have to, like, they're cooled by airflow. Oh, interesting. Okay, I learned something new. I didn't know pigs didn't sweat. Well same as dogs, like dogs pant and like evaporation over their tongues and like drooling and like that's how they cool themselves.

1
 0:37:04
 Interesting. 

Ellan

Very similar with pigs. I'm 90% sure about that. Oh I can't imagine. I'll quote myself before I publish this. Yeah. I'll double check, fact check. You know, it's even cool on the dairy cow side, for example, cows are under heat stress conditions when it's over, what is it? 72 degrees, I'm pretty sure. I'm like 99% sure it's 72 degrees. So living up where we live in Minnesota, Wisconsin, you wouldn't think that cows would be heat stressed compared to Florida and Texas.

 0:37:39
 But I mean, cows up here every summer, they have about 80 days of heat stress, right, of heat stress conditions. And when you think about 80, 90 days of heat stress, and you think of fetal development, you know, cows are pregnant, you know, their last trimester is that 80 to 90 days. So a lot can happen if a cow is heat stressed and that fetus is really in the last stages of growing and developing. That heat stress is huge on what's going to be coming out at the end there.

morgan
 0:38:12
 Yeah, most definitely.

Ellan
 0:38:13
 For lack of a better term.

Morgan

Oh, awesome. Well, I don't have any other questions. All right. Do you have anything else to leave with our audience?

0:38:22
 I have nothing else.

Morgan
 0:38:24
 Anything they need to know about you?

Ellan
 0:38:27
 Anything they need to know about me?

Morgan
 0:38:29
 You know, aside from baby cows, 

Ellan
 0:38:34
 I also love birds.

Morgan

Birds?

Ellan
 0:38:35
 I'm an amateur birder, so if there's anyone out there that wants to go birding, just let me know. 

Morgan 

Bird watch. Do you have a pet bird? 

Ellan

I do not have a pet bird, but I do like to go bird watch. And apparently that's like a really uncool hobby to have.

5
 0:38:50
 So just looking for-

1
 0:38:51
 It's only cool if you're like over 60. I am basically an old woman in a 33 year old body. Let's be true. But no, it's hard to find friends who want to go out birding. So hey, if you're up in the Twin Cities metro area, just let me know. 

Morgan

 And it's hard to find, I feel like there's not a very wide variety of birds in the cities. I'm going to take you birding sometime. You should. Yep. Yep. Do you go birding from the top of the buildings or do you go to like the park?

Ellan
 0:39:24
 There's gonna be a lot of pigeons and house sparrows, okay? All right, awesome. Well, have a good rest of your week and thanks, I appreciate it. All right, awesome. Well, have a good rest of your week and thanks, I appreciate it.

4
 0:39:35
 Thank you. Take care.