Melchior Receives Young Cattlemen’s Scholarship

Melchior Receives Young Cattlemen’s Scholarship

Emily Melchior, Las Cruces, was awarded the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association (NMCGA) Young Cattlemen’s Leadership Committee (YCLC) Graduate Scholarship in the amount of $500 this summer. Emily is the daughter of Roger and Christine of Las Cruces.

Emily was born in Baltimore, MD and took a circuitous route to agriculture from Maryland, Wisconsin, and Florida. At the age of 10, she began riding horses in Florida when she decided she wanted to be a Veterinarian but was unsure of the majority of the agricultural field of which veterinary medicine had a role. In her freshman year at Braden River High School she was enrolled in an introductory agriculture class, which ultimately set her on a path to success in the agriculture world. She became heavily involved in her school’s FFA chapter, through career development events, leadership development and agricultural projects. She began showing beef animals through FFA and showed a market steer during her senior year. She decided she wanted to be part of the agricultural industry is ways other than just a consumer.

She graduated high school in 2012 and attended Berry College in Rome, GA to obtain as BS in Animal Science. While there, she engaged in departmental research on immunity and antibodies of dairy cattle throughout lactation. After graduation from Berry, she completed an internship with the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service. She pursued her MS in Animal Science with a focus on rumen microbiology at the University of Tennessee and did her thesis on the mitigation of negative physiological effects caused by tall fescue toxicosis. After graduation in 2018, she went on to pursue a Ph.D program that would allow her to apply the basic science skills obtained in her Master’s program to applied science and further meet producer needs. This led her to New Mexico State University where she could integrate ruminant nutrition, rumen microbiology and immunology. She has now completed her second year in the Ph.D program in the Department of Animal and Range Science under the mentorship of Dr. Shanna Ivey and Dr. Eric Scholljegerdes.

Each year, the NMCGA awards the YCLC

Emily Melchior, Las Cruces

Graduate Scholarship at their summer meeting. Applicants must be New Mexico residents, and come from a beef cattle production background, but not necessarily pursuing a degree in an agricultural field. NMCGA membership is not a requirement, but members and their families do get preference. ▫