Spring/Summer
2022

Cultivate

CultivateThe Magazine of the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences

aggie ice cream handed to student

Now Serving: 100 Years of Aggie Ice Cream

Happy Birthday, Aggie Ice Cream! January 21, 2022, marks the centennial anniversary of the quintessential Aggie treat, and to honor this milestone, USU will celebrate all year with new and returning flavors and special events.

In This Issue

 

medical briefcase

10th Veterinary Medicine Class Forms Bonds and Prepares for New Challenges

Incoming veterinary medical students worked in small groups during orientation to get acquainted and to learn strategies that will help them navigate the demands of their 4-year DVM training and future careers.

dna

Bioinformatics: Big Data Pushing the Boundaries of Human Knowledge

Imagine you are a scientist studying how the genetics of wheat and a particular fungus interact. The fungus has maybe 5,000 genes. The wheat might have more than 50,000 — 10 times the number of the fungus. But to understand the relationship between pathogen and plant, you need to look at how the fungus and wheat genes affect each other.

pagelines

Ardeshir Zahedi, October 1928 – November 2021

Notable Utah State University alumnus and donor, Ardeshir Zahedi, died on November 18, 2021, at his home in Switzerland. He was 93.

Blue Mint Cone

Origin Story: Aggie Blue Mint

The Aggie Creamery participated in Day on the Quad during the first week of fall semester 2004, scooping free Aggie ice cream for students and, along with Whitney Wilkinson from USU Public Relations and Marketing, we organized a Design an Ice Cream competition and invited students to submit ideas for new flavors.
Joe Crum

Creating Opportunities for Other Kids from Wyoming

Joe Crum is a paradox. A kid from a small Wyoming town who earned high school first-team all-conference honors in football, basketball, and track, but who doesn’t consider himself a “natural” athlete.

Soils judging team

Soils Judging Team Earns National Win

Members of Utah State University’s soils judging team gathered in the Agricultural Sciences and Research Building soils lab to view the outcome of the 2021 Virtual National Soil Judging Contest rather than at some far-away hotel with 20 other collegiate soil judging teams and learned that their many hours of study and training were rewarded with the first-place win for the overall group score.

More In This Issue

Block A

CAAS is Home to USU’s Top Advisors

Utah State University’s Advising Awards Committee announced the 2021 USU Advisor of the Year award recipients. Tami Spackman, advisor in Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences (ADVS) was named Professional Advisor of the Year and Dawnetta Mahnken, advisor in Jon M. Huntsman School of Business was named New Advisor of the Year.

Amria Farnsworth

Amria Farnsworth Honored by the Utah Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Amria Farnsworth, a recent graduate of Utah State University’s Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences (NDFS), has been named the 2021 Outstanding Dietetics Student by the Utah Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (UAND).

Don McMahon

Don McMahon: A Career at the Aggie Creamery

When Don McMahon and his wife sat down to make a list of pros and cons about leaving their home in Australia to move back to the United States, Aggie Ice Cream was the first bullet point on the “Pros” list.

Equine therapy

New Equine-Human Science Building Under Construction

To support students, faculty, and community members who are served by equine-assisted therapies and activities programs, construction is underway on a new Equine-Human Science Center at the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences’ Animal Science Farm in Wellsville.

Past Issue Articles

Aggies Win Smart Snacks Competition

It's snack time! USU students used their creativity, food science knowledge and a lot of work to win the Institute of Food Technologists Smart Snacks for Kids competition.

CAAS Responds to COVID-19

College of Agriculture Students and faculty quickly became more creative in the spring to finish the semester strong and continue with involvement in the fall semester.

Institute for Antiviral Research

Researchers at USU’s Institute for Antiviral Research have been at work since February testing antiviral compounds and licensed drugs for their effectiveness against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Our Food System and the Impact of COVID-19

Utah State University’s Hunger Solutions Institute, and combined efforts of donors and volunteers, managed to pull off “miracles” to help struggling Utahns on both ends of the food supply chain.