Classroom lessons meet the cattle industry for UK student

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 30, 2026) — After growing up on her parents’ and grandparents’ farms, Whitney Peck knew a lot about the “what” of cattle farming. Studying Animal Sciences at the University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment has helped her learn the “why.”

“I had a little bit of background knowledge of everything I was learning, which made me want to learn more about the little things,” Peck said. “So, I knew that we had to give our cows mineral, but I never knew why. Then going through the animal science program, I learned you give mineral for these certain reasons."

A rising senior from Fredonia, Kentucky, Peck has continued to pair classroom and experiential learning. This summer, she is interning with Pratt Feeders Group in Pratt, Kansas.

Anne DeMott, Martin-Gatton CAFE director of transfer and graduate recruitment, helped Peck connect with this opportunity through mutual friends in the cattle industry.

“Whitney exemplifies what happens when preparation meets initiative and the courage to pursue goals,” DeMott said. "Her story is one I hope encourages other students to be proactive in investing in relationships — you never know where connections might lead.”

After being around the Kentucky cattle industry for years, Peck wanted to work in Kansas. “It’s nothing but cows, which I think is why I like it,” she said.

Peck is doing “a little bit of everything” during long days at her internship. In the mornings, she works in shipping and receiving with the feedlot’s bunk reader, weighing and documenting cattle that arrive at the feedlot. Then, she spends her afternoons helping the head cowboy “doctor” the cattle — addressing issues like rectal prolapses and foot rot. To help with those “pre-vet” tasks, they use a computer system that accesses the particular animal's records and recommends a treatment plan.

When she works with the cattle manager, Peck helps make the show list of cows that are available to be sold, whether through grid-based marketing, cash sales or trades.

“I’ll go look at the cows and see if they are ready to be sold,” she said. “Look at their frame, their disposition, and are they fat enough, with fat on the topline?”

For Peck, working across the feedlot has shown her what she likes and hopes to do in the future. “I really like the management side because of how all the pieces fit together,” Peck said. “But I also like working with people. I’d like to end up in a cattle association working with producers, but also I see myself on the cattle manager side.”

Additional work experiences have also shaped Peck’s goals for her future, including working at Bluegrass Stockyards in Lexington this past spring and being part of the UK Cooperative Extension Service internship program in Summer 2025.

Working with the Warren County Extension Office, Peck was grateful that she got to work with cattle, which she already knew she liked, but also got to learn new things when farmers called for help with weeds, for example.  

“That made me realize that yes, if you’re a cattle farmer, cattle’s a part of it, but there are also 14,000 other things that go into it,” she said. “And I also realized how UK Extension is in the community so much. We were going to district court meetings and local radio stations.”

As she begins her senior year at UK in Fall 2026, Peck will be supported for the second time by a scholarship from The Bill Gatton Foundation, part of the Scholarships and Student Success pillar of the Foundation's $100 million gift to the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

The scholarship is specifically for students with an agriculture background, which Peck said is “pretty neat.”

“It's an opportunity for those farm kids to keep furthering our knowledge and maybe be something in the industry, with that college education behind it,” Peck said. “We can always be advocates of this industry — not just the beef industry but agriculture as a whole.”

Learn more about Animal Sciences at UK.