Laramie County Community College (LCCC) this week had world renowned livestock industry consultant, Temple Grandin on campus to look over facilities for possible better handling practices. Grandin has authored over 60 peer reviewed scientific papers on animal behavior, and is a prominent proponent for the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter. A major piece of equipment that Grandin developed was a center track (double rail) conveyor restrainer system for holding cattle during stunning in large beef plants. The first system was installed in the mid-eighties for calves and a system for large beef cattle was developed in 1990. This equipment is now being used by many large meat companies.
Bruce Nisley, Program Director for Agriculture and Equine at LCCC, says the equine program has maxed out along with the rodeo, livestock and show team’s being very active, creating a shortage of space. “Even with a very nice indoor arena, students are utilizing that building from seven in the morning till nine o’clock at night usually” Nisley says. “In order to expand anything, we need to have more arena space plus more horse boarding space.” Currently, LCCC has about 150 head horses alone between the rodeo and equine teams.
Nisley also mentioned that LCCC has about 150 students in the ag and equine programs but would love to expand those numbers. He says their location located close to Nebraska and Colorado really helps recruit more students to the great state of Wyoming.
LCCC is only exploring options of what they have for buildings and what is salvageable along with what changes they need to make current facilities and possibly building new facilities. They have called upon a consulting firm to come in and help figure out what the college is looking to do as well as build a vision of what the campus could look like in the future. One member of that firm is Temple Grandin, and Nisley says he has really enjoyed working with her and her expertise that she brings to the table. Once LCCC gets a more firm plan in place, “Grandin will be instrumental in actully developing livestock flows and livestock facilities to enable LCCC to keep building on their ag, equine and rodeo programs.”