LATU's farm manager Mike Reilly. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
An uptick in the take-up of veterinary and agriculture studies has seen Massey University expand its Large Animal Teaching Unit (LATU) in recent years.
The country's only veterinary school currently has a cohort of about 650 students across the five-year programme.
With over half coming from non-rural backgrounds, the "outdoor classroom" serves as an important first step on the students' journey to working with farm animals, LATU's manager Mike Reilly told Country Life.
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Located on the outskirts of the Palmerston North campus, the teaching farm and facilities were first established 30 years ago. Back then classes comprised about 70 students. These days it's 175.
It has also expanded significantly in area, to include a neighbouring farm, a lecture room that can accommodate 100 students, a sheep and pig teaching facility, 12 horse stocks, an arena and 13 purpose-built cow stocks for teaching.
The safety and welfare of both people and the animals they're working with are paramount. That's increasingly important with so many students now coming from cities with no animal handling experience, Reilly explained.
"We have 50 international students, some of which will have never seen a sheep because there's no sheep in their home country. We don't want the students going out onto farm and we're not confident they know how to behave around an animal."
The farm is home to a number of gentle-natured dairy cows that the students learn to work with. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
He has a herd of 26 "extremely quiet" cows for the students to work with, adding if they were Angus steers "there'd be too much noise ... no one would learn".
Reilly also brings in up to 70 cows to teach the students about pregnancy diagnosis, and the farm is home to 30 horses, a flock of sheep and alpaca, donkeys, and several pigs, which they get in seasonally.
The facilities' set-up means five classes can run at any one time working with five different species.
"This is where students get to interact with them, learn the basics of handling and learn to do a good clinical exam on a healthy animal."
A learning farm, it includes life-like models of birthing cows and calves. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
Students also learn to how to get cows into stocks. They learn how to put a halter on a horse, to lift their feet and clean them out, and how to move and turn sheep over.
Reilly is conscious of the animal's welfare too and tries to rotate them around to share the teaching load. Strict ethics also guide their welfare and care.
He said the main challenge is the seasonality of life on farm.
"First semester is in autumn, second semester is winter through to spring. It's the worst time to have maximum numbers of animals but it's when I have them."
To mitigate this he destocks as much as he can over the summer to grow lots of grass which will keep the stock fed over the winter.
"It's a challenge but that's what makes it interesting."
Reilly said LATU is what helps set the school apart from others overseas.
Massey's veterinary science programme ranked 21st globally in the 2024 QS World University Ranking and is the highest-ranked veterinary school in Australasia.
Each part of the facility has been specially designed to cater for a specific animal, such as this ovine teaching space. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
The farm includes animals such as alpaca, which require a special touch when being handled. Photo: Gianina Schwanecke / Country Life
Learn more:
You can learn more about LATU, here.
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