Alycia Drwencke

Email: [email protected]

Education
Ph.D., Animal Behavior, ​University of California, Davis, California, 2025.
M.S., Animal Biology, University of California, Davis, California, 2019.
B.S., Animal Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 2017.

Research
My MSc research focused on innovative heat abatement for dairy cows utilizing more water and energy efficient technology. We found two methods that were more energy and water efficient than a typical approach in California, one using soakers and fans, and one convective cooling method. These were then tested on a commercial dairy. We also looked at using drool as an earlier indicator of heat load in dairy cows, which is supported by our data.

After spending nearly 2 years working for Cornell Cooperative Extension as a regional Dairy Management Specialist I returned to the Tucker Lab to complete a PhD with the Animal Behavior Graduate Group. My research examined the pain and wound healing associated with caustic paste disbudding, a common husbandry procedure used to prevent horn growth. I found that hot-iron disbudding creates faster healing wounds than any method of caustic paste application that I tested. Ultimately, leaving cattle horned or using polled genetics are the only ways to avoid pain from disbudding.

I am currently a Ruminant Technical Services Manager, working with the Novus International C.O.W.S. program. The objective of my career is to improve the lives of farmed animals, taking into account their perspective of management and housing conditions.