- Hello everyone and welcome to Sunup.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We have a special show lined out for you today as I'm joined by my longtime sunup colleague, Kurtis Hair.

Kurtis, we wanna take a look back at your trip to the UK and then also present some new things and dive a little deeper into some of the topics that you were a part of when you were there.

- Yeah, I'm sure some, a lot of the sunup viewers are aware of the trip that Darrell and I took over to Scotland, and we did have a lot of fun over there, but we did do some work.

And one of the interesting things that we got to do was really find out about Scottish agriculture and what it takes to manage livestock in that country.

- Can't wait to see that.

But first, let's take a look at why Daryl and Kurtis headed to the land of the Scots in the first place, - Scotland, the land of castles and cities of stones surrounded by scenery greener than the Emerald city and home to some shockingly great beer.

Now, you may be asking yourself, what exactly is Kurtis doing in the uk?

Don't worry, we'll get there.

So sit back and let's explore the rugged beauty that is Scotland, Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland.

It's the first stop for me and livestock marketing specialist, Dr. Darrell Peele Darrell, along with agricultural economics.

Professor Beth Norwood organized this trip as a study abroad opportunity for a group of OSU students.

- This is the second year of a study abroad course, you know, because we were coming over here anyway, we made arrangements for for you to come with us and, and we've spent the week documenting some agricultural stuff.

We visited the vet school at the University of Edinburgh, - The World Dick School of Veterinary Studies is one of the most prestigious veterinary schools in the world.

And they organized a facilities tour for Daryl and me to see what dairy, beef, and sheep production looks like in this part of the world.

After a few days of exploring and getting the chance to see Scottish agriculture up close, it's finally time to head to the airport to pick up the students - Right here.

Alrighty.

You made this - A quick stretch in a few yawns, and it's time to get started on a trip like this.

Time isn't something that you waste.

The walking one of the most famous stretches of Road in the World right up to a castle is a great way to shake off that eight hour flight.

It's called the Royal Mile Dating back to the 12th century.

This stretch of cobbled road leads a steady steep incline all the way up to Edinburgh Castle.

Not exactly like stepping back in time, but it's pretty close.

As you can tell, this is more of a touristy part of the journey, mainly to keep the students from falling asleep, because tomorrow is when the ag part of the trip really begins.

- So this year, the Royal Highland Show is actually the first full day the students have been here.

So we're beginning the trip with this big day here at the, at the show.

- I've just experienced so much already.

We've only been here for a day and we're here at the Royal Highland Cattle Show and seeing all of the different types of agriculture.

- Hannah Doherty is one of the students who was selected for this trip, and she says, the past few days I've been a wonderful whirlwind.

- I think what really surprises me is actually how in great conditions the buildings are for, how old they are and how green everything is.

It's, it's just absolutely breathtaking.

I think it's - A part of college is learning, so exposing you to new things.

Sure.

It's like the Yorkshire Shore that, - As I mentioned earlier, OSU Ag Economics, professor Beth Norwood organized this study abroad class with Darryll.

She says trips like these have a massive positive impact on the students.

- So about half the trip is learning about agriculture, meeting with the universities, government officials, and then we also do some of the historical trips and cultural things really to get the students a great exposure to not only how agriculture is different in this country, but also how food and anything aspects of life are also different.

- I mean, yeah, just kind of how big the city is, honestly, and how like, you know, it's so old, everything's so old and it's like, wow, all the history here.

And I guess I knew what to, to expect it, but I guess I couldn't have been prepared for that.

So - Like Hannah fellow Studia abroad student, Owen Brown says, the trip so far has been amazing, though the similarities between Scottish and US agriculture are surprising, - Kind of, you know, for as different as I thought it would be, it's very similar.

A lot of things like, you know, we're showing cattle and looking at all the food and all that kind of stuff, and there's just not as much of a cultural disconnect as I would've thought there'd be.

- I've just experienced so much already.

We've only been here for a day.

Seeing all the different types of agriculture and a different country is just amazing.

And the beautiful countryside and different cultures to see and how old everything is.

It's been a really great experience.

- I tell you what, if you just listen to the students when they first come in, yeah, you, you, you understand the value so much.

It's just, it, it obviously it opens their eyes to, to new things.

Well, it's important to me because it's exactly what happened to me.

You know, I went through the same thing once upon a time and, and I remember how much it opens your eyes and it, it takes you out of a, a little box and, and shows you that there's a lot bigger box.

And I think that's our primary challenge in the College of Agriculture.

We get a lot of great kids, you know, all the right background and work ethic and, and all of those things.

But what they haven't seen is a lot of the world, - Aberdeen, Scotland, a port city nestled right into the banks, the North Sea, where the next leg of the journey for these students will begin and new experiences and memories will undoubtedly be made.

But they're not the only ones affected by this journey.

You see, as an Okie who grew up in a rural community with endless grids of dirt roads, walking these cobbled streets and cities of stone, it's just, well, hard to put into words honestly, overwhelming, but in the best way, working closely with Darrell and his wife Pat, making friends with the locals, exhausting mountain hikes, riding my first train, which is one of the most beautiful experiences these landlocked eyes have ever seen.

A chef's kiss of a work trip though having roughly only about three and a half hours of complete darkness at night did get to me.

In just a few hours, Darryl and the students will be hopping on a ferry and heading up north to the Shetland Islands.

And as for me, well, it's time to start my long journey back to Oklahoma.

So from Scotland here in the uk, I'm Curtis Hare.

Hmm.

Tractors, livestock grooming.

Delicious, deep fried goodness And cornhole.

- Oh, nearly, yeah.

- You know, if it weren't for the charming accents in a breezy 63 degree day at 11:00 AM in the middle of June, I'd feel like I'm right back home at the state fair in Oklahoma, but we're not in Oklahoma today.

Set up viewers.

So get that favorite mug out and fill it to the brim as we continue our Scottish journey.

- So today we're at the Royal Hot Highland Show in Edinburgh, Scotland.

It's basically a showcase of all of the nation's livestock production.

- Today's the second day of a study abroad trip for OSU student.

Marty Sadowski Marty, along with several other students, are on a two week excursion to learn about Scottish agriculture as well as the country's culture and history - At home.

My family raises cattle and so we exhibit cattle at state fairs in the US and it's been cool to kind of be comparing and contrasting a state fair to something like this because I would say in some ways it's comparable to a state fair where it is an exhibition for the farmers and the livestock producers, but it's also for the public to come and learn.

It's kind of smelly.

- It does not smell very good.

- Besides the cool air and castles.

There's not a lot of differences between our state fair and the Royal Highland Show, though it's pretty easy to spot those differences.

- The one thing missing is the carnival.

We only have a Ferris wheel here at this Royal Highland Show - Like Marty, OSU, travel Abroad student Jared Stone.

It's surprised by the similarities at this show in fares back home.

He says, though he expected to see some differences, seeing it up close is a little different than the imagination.

- The Livestock exhibition is a little bit different.

They're showing outdoors on a green grass field.

We don't do that.

No Oklahoma, we were always going on dirt field inside.

They also turn their sheep loose, which I've never done showing sheep when I was little.

So that was really cool to see that they're just turning 'em loose and looking at 'em without a showman there with them.

- I tell you what, if you just listen to the students when they first come in, yeah, you, you, you understand the value so much.

It's just, it, it obviously it opens their eyes to, to new things.

What's government - Based here in Edinburgh?

So I'm responsible for everything to do with agriculture.

So our - System, George Burgess is the director of Agriculture and Rural Economy for the Scottish government.

He took the time to discuss the issues and challenges the country is dealing with when it comes to the ag world.

- What have some of the benefits been for farmers with having agriculture policy be decided a little bit more locally to them than as part of like the EU or - The government that I work for?

The Scottish Gut believes that the European Union is a good thing.

That said, there is a difficulty creating an agricultural policy that works for, you know, everywhere from far north of Scotland to the, to the far south of Greece.

- It's amazing to get to see as much as we are.

And by going on this trip, we're getting to do a lot of things that I could have never done if I planned the trip myself.

Some of the farm visits, some of the like, different officials that were getting to meet those things aren't things I could do by myself.

I - Think it's something every student should look at.

I've learned a lot coming to different nations, getting to see, look at everything from a different perspective.

- The rest of the day is back to exploring and the students waste no time.

By the time I grab my gear, the students are scattered to the Scottish breeze.

But with this event being so similar to our state fair, I think I know where I'm needed most from the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh, Scotland.

I'm Kurtis Hair.

- We're talking now about international experiences for college students with Dr. Carl Rich here in the Ferguson College of Agriculture.

And Carl, we saw the story that Curtis reported on with Dr. Peele and the students.

Really an amazing trip for them.

How do some of these programs work?

- So we, the first College of Agriculture has a number of study abroad programs for undergraduates.

And they're typically thematic based on different areas of interest, be it one health, be it agribusiness.

And students have a range of choices of different places to choose from for graduate students who are also international experiences available in different master's programs.

So the one that I lead allows students to go overseas for a minimum of one month.

And we've got students that go to overseas for a semester or longer and those are funded generously through the support of an endowment we have here on campus.

- So some of these programs are shorter in nature, a week or two, others are more long term.

How do those work?

- So the short term courses are typically for, for undergraduates.

So your normal study abroad course would go for about 10 days to maybe a little bit over two weeks for longer term programs that we have the master's level, those are typically anywhere from a month to two or three months.

And we currently have a study exchange with Lincoln University of New Zealands where students can spend a semester overseas.

- We loved when Kurtis got back telling us all about his trip and the things that he got to see and experience.

Is that kind of a theme for the young people who get to take part in any of these programs?

- Absolutely.

I, I do find that international travel can be very transformational for students.

I led a co co-ed a course on One Health this past summer in Namibia.

Many of our students had never gone on a plane or been overseas before.

And I sort of see the changes that students actually have as people and professionals.

I think it's really inspiring.

We really see this at the graduate level too, where students come back with more confidence, more self-esteem, and really have that sort of passion to sort of know what they wanna do after they're finished.

- They're really exposed to how agriculture works and other parts of the world too.

And it runs, it's probably designed to run parallel to what they're learning here on campus.

- Absolutely.

And so really the, the, the idea of these these courses or internships is to really deepen your knowledge that you actually gain in the classroom.

And so it's to really see firsthand what agriculture looks like overseas and to kind of compare and contrast.

'cause sometimes, as you saw in the Scotland video, it's not that different what we see in Oklahoma.

And so being able to kind of like relate to what agriculture looks like overseas is really important - For parents or students who may see this segment and want to learn a little bit more about some of the options.

What's the best route to, to find out.

- So talking to your professors is one great way to figure out some what opportunities are available.

We also have a study abroad coordinator in the associate dean's office who can provide you more information on what's available in a given semester.

- Thanks a lot Carl.

And for more information on international programs in the Ferguson College of Agriculture, go to sunup.OKstate.edu.

One stop for Daryl and Kurtis was the Roslyn Institute famous for a sheep that changed the world of livestock forever.

Now Daryl is sitting down with the institute's president, who was also a researcher on that groundbreaking project.

- Alright, we're visiting today with Bruce Whitelaw, director of the Rosalyn Institute.

So thank you for being here.

Tell us a little bit about the Rosalyn Institute.

- So obviously Rosalyn has a reputation around a certain sheep called Dolly, which, which has been wonderful for us for, for decades now.

- Right - At the time, which was back in the 1980s, we were very much focused on genetic engineering of animals, livestock in particular.

And we still are.

And at that time it was a very crude technology we had, we would do what was called pronuclear injection where you would take a very fine glass needle and inject your transgene into a fertilized, the pronucleus of a fertilized egg.

As sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn't work - Right - In the mouse community, in the research community that worked with mice, many laboratory around the world were using what we call embryonic stem cells.

These are pluripotent, they com contribute to all parts of the animal, but most importantly, you can manipulate them in culture, you can do your transgenesis or nowadays your genome editing in, in culture.

We didn't have that in, in large animals.

This then led Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell to develop the, the dolly project, which utilized rather than transfer of a, a stem cell transfer of a nucleus into an enucleated egg to form reconstitute that embryo and form an animal at the time, completely up from a scientific perspective, complete breakthrough.

This would open up a very sophisticated genetic engineering possibilities in in farmed animals.

- Right.

- But it also opened up this huge debate around cloning.

- Exactly.

- Initially focused on cloning a human beings and, and a variety of, of aspects as well as animals.

The, and and, you know, across the world, colossal, public, colossal, regulatory, colossal, ethical debates around this.

We still go on today, - Right?

- And, and have as much resonance today as they did back in the, the late eighties and early nineties.

The irony of it, we at the minute don't do any more cloning here.

- So the Dolly project has led to a lot of things.

Talk a little bit about some of the, the ripple effects that have come from the Dolly project, - The ripple effects of Dolly.

There are three major ripples coming out and they're, they're, they're, they're not these, these are tidal waves.

These are not just splashes.

One, one is the, the development of genetic technologies in livestock and farmed animals.

This is what's central to our activity here at, at Roslyn.

One is the speed of which cell-based human therapies are developing around the world.

TAR cells being the current forefront of that.

And that's, that's exploded.

This idea that you can use cells as part of your surgical solution to, to a patient's disease is, is huge and it's gaining momentum.

The other one is, and partly the reason why you're here is the public debate and the interest that society has in biology in general, not just Dolly, but in in biology in general.

And, and that's massive.

I mean, before Dolly, very few people would talk about genetics, would talk about biological research after Dolly.

Everyone's talking about - It.

Exactly.

- The continuum, you know, and we, we, we developed the, the pro-nuclear injections.

First of all, as did other labs.

We developed cloning.

We then moved into viral vectors to help us create transgenic animals that has limitations.

We now use these wonderful molecular tools called geno editors such as CRISPR or talon or zinc fingers, primarily CRISPR technology because it's very easy to work with.

We're using that to create very specific mutations in large animals that confer some sort of improved trait - Upon - Them.

The example I would give is a disease called porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome, which we have taken out one exon, which involves using two guide RNA and CRISPR to chop out that Exxon, the animal is viable, it reproduces, it grows, it feed converts.

Everything is as would be before.

But that one Exxon is where this virus interacts.

- Is that right?

- And those animals are resistant to viral infection.

- Where did the name Dolly come from?

- Well, Dolly came from one of our farm staff who suggested that it, that it could be named after Dolly Parton.

- There we go.

- And, and we once again anecdotally, we once had a conversation with Dolly Parton's PR team and asked the question, did, did they mind this?

She called after her and the answer was, any publicity is good publicity.

- There you go.

So, you know, thank you so much.

We've had a great visit.

Bruce.

Appreciate the opportunity to visit with you here at the Roslyn Institute.

- It's great having you here, especially such a lovely sunny day.

- Absolutely.

- You're welcome back.

Thank you.

- Continuing our discussion about Dolly the sheep with associate professor Dr. Dan Stein, who's a professor in the animal science department.

And Dr. Stein.

Let's talk a little bit about just the - Impacts overall globally in regards to Dolly the sheep.

Okay.

Since - Dolly the sheep, we've had a lot of advancements made in, in that area.

Part of that advancement has come from just the people kind of understanding the process and not being afraid of, you know, what somatic cell nuclear transfers or cloning is.

Again, what we can do with cloning is again, we can, you know, propagate, you know, very, very productive animals.

If we have, again, the thing about it, if that male or female is not able to produce off string, we can take a somatic cell from any part of the body.

Since Lee, it's, I won't say it's a simple process, but I think people are scared of it because they don't, they don't really understand, you - Know what it is, you take your students down here to see these industries as Right, yes.

We - Take spring and fall, we take our honors group and others, other TAs that are helping me in the reprod class down to that facility.

Overall, what I say about Don of the sheep is it's led us - Into a whole new era.

Well, thank you so much for with me today, Dr. Stein.

- Dan Stein, OSU, extension reproductive Specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- Good morning Oklahoma and welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

Our topic this week is gene editing and beef cattle, or particularly CRISPR technology.

And this is an interesting technology that has evolved over the past couple decades and offers the potential for scientists to make specific modifications in the genome of beef cattle.

Particularly useful when we think about simply inherited traits where only one pair of alleles might actually influence phenotypes.

And this is a technology that has the potential to accelerate the progress of breeding programs.

It permits us to potentially introduce a useful gene from one breed into another, potentially reduce susceptibility to disease, potentially knock out lethal or sub lethal genes.

There's a lot of potential with the CRISPR technology itself as we think about where we are and what has happened with this technology relative to the beef industry in this country.

We currently have a handful of cattle in the states here that have been modified so that they have reduced susceptibility to bovine viral diarrhea virus.

Not a lot of those still in the learning stage with regard to those animals, but that's been a single gene edit that has reduced their susceptibility to that.

We, we've been able to do things with the myostatin gene that potentially increases red meat yield and beef cattle.

We have successfully substituted a poll allele outta one breed into another breed.

And we have done some things with regard to a slick hair gene and a diluter color gene that has enabled cattle to be more tolerant of extremely hot climates because they have a lighter shade and they shed hair more readily in the summer.

Again, long term what will happen with this technology is going to be based on the regulatory framework that is imposed on us.

This varies a great deal from country to country around the globe.

If we think about the use of this technology, what can potentially happen in the United States beef industry, if we end up with regulatory policy that permits free enterprise innovation, increases profit potential and innovation, we have potentially got a tool in our toolbox as cattlemen that can accelerate the progress of our breeding programs.

Hope this helps, and thanks for joining us on Cow Calf Corner.

- Finally today.

Throughout the show we've heard a lot about Scottish agriculture, but what does it take to really manage a herd in those type of conditions?

Once again, here's Curtis Hare.

- We've seen a lot on this journey through this emerald country, but one aspect that we haven't quite delved into is, well, the most relevant to Sunup agriculture, just a mile or two up some stomach churning, twisting narrow roads is the farm for the rural Dick School of Veterinary Services where it's time to find out what it takes to manage animals in this environment.

We meet with farm clinician, Alistair McCray, who says, one of the biggest challenges producers face is something who pretty much everyone who's visited this country has become familiar with rain, but not for the reason you would think - Bits of the UK can get pretty dry during the summertime, believe it or not.

But that's mostly down in the, in the south of England, we mostly have our biggest problem with being too wet, actually.

So this was a good example.

Figures that I've seen for the UK suggested about 30% of the UK winter wheat didn't get sown in the autumn time last year.

And so we've had to put in things like spring barley for example, to compensate, which doesn't give you the yields and it doesn't give you the starch content that you get out of winter wheat.

But yeah, just having a, having a decent window to be able to harvest it, some dry weather to be able to make silage is kind of one of the key things that we need to have when there's, when there's too much rain, while - This forever wet ground can obviously present issues to livestock, it's what the livestock does to the ground.

That's the main issue.

- One of the biggest issues we have and in the UK the farmers call it poaching and it's basically when the cows turn the fields into mud.

- Yeah.

- And that then obviously destroys the grazing structure and it means you stock, you know, preventing grazing for both this year and potentially next year if you do some fairly severe damage with it as well too.

So keeping cows on a ro most farm will use a rotation paddock system.

We're actually quite lucky, believe it or not, in that we are on the east side of Scotland here, you can double the rainfall on the west side of Scotland.

So they have, you know, they, some of the places in the west coast of Scotland are getting three meters of rain a year.

Yeah.

I guess most diseases of dairy cows are the same.

The world over, they get mastitis, they get lameness, and they struggle to get back in calf again.

In terms of lameness, that's a, that's a big issue in UK dairy cows and having them outside in, in muddy conditions.

We get foot rots, we get digital dermatitis, we get sole ulcers.

We get those kind of, those are the most common conditions - Like Oklahoma and the rest of the world.

Diseases are always on top of mind, especially this year in the uk - The, the big thing the UK is slightly nervous about at the moment is we have Blu tongue down in the southeast of England at the moment.

It came over from the Netherlands last year and it blew over the English channel and there's evidence that it's probably stayed in cattle over the wintertime in the southeast of England.

And our mid vector is now getting up and, and we're just, we don't really know at the moment how far blue tongue is gonna spread from the southeast of England.

- Although Scotland is known for sheep and dairy production, the interest in cross-breeding is growing.

- So we have, we have quite a big suckled calf industry in Scotland.

So beef that comes from, from purebred beef animals.

But we also have a lot of our beef comes from dairy crosses as well too.

So we select our replacement dairy heifers and breed them to sex semen, but then everything else will get put crossbred.

Most of our crossbred animals then get sold on to another local farmer at about two months of age and they'll get reared for beef production in the uk.

You know, - Walking around the farm, there's some similarities between Scottish ag and Okie ag, but it doesn't take much to remind you that you're a world away.

A castle will do that from Edinburgh in the uk.

I'm Kurtis Hair, - That will do it for us this week.

We hope you've enjoyed our special focus on agriculture in Scotland.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma agriculture starts at Sunup.