Students in Popular Animal Science Course Help Baby Sheep Spring to Life on Campus Farm
Sheep Management” student Tatiana Ferebee, holding one of ewe Lucy’s newborn lambs, looks to Campus Farm Manager Crystal Caldwell for guidance during a physical exam.
Image Credit: Stephanie S. Cordle
Like any anxious relative awaiting newborn news, as soon as Avital Saletsky’s phone rang early Saturday morning, she dashed out the door of her Oakland Hall room. But instead of the hospital, she hightailed it straight to the Campus Farm, where the baby in question was utterly ovine.
Saletsky ’22 is one of 20 Terps taking the hybrid “Sheep Management,” an animal science class that features the popular “Lamb Watch” experience. Pairs of student “shepherds,” each assigned a pregnant ewe, bring the information they learn in virtual lectures to the barn, where—with COVID safety protocols in place—they help the sheep give birth to baaing bundles of joy, with 26 born this month.
“That was part of my decision of coming (to UMD), just having the Campus Farm and being able to participate in a class like that,” said Saletsky, whose ewe, Pegasus, had the last lamb of the semester.
