Dairy spotlight: Alycia Bales
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EmailBales is a recent graduate from the Department of Animal Science at Michigan State University.
Growing up in agriculture, Alycia Bales, PhD, always knew she wanted to work with animals. She spent almost every spare moment on her uncle's beef operation where her 4-H steers were raised. She initially attended Michigan State University (MSU) with the hope of veterinary school but instead switched paths to dairy nutrition. During her senior year, Bales joined Adam Lock's, PhD, lab and her love of research bloomed from there.
Under the guidance of Lock, her MS and PhD studies concentrated on fatty acid nutrition in dairy cattle with a focus on oleic acid, where she utilized fat supplements and oilseeds to achieve her research objectives. Within the oilseed research, she had a series of studies feeding the high oleic acid soybean, which has positively impacted the Michigan dairy industry and her current position.
After graduation, Bales started a position with Caledonia Farmers Elevator as the animal nutrition technical support specialist. Her role focuses on supporting the feed team by bridging the gap between research and on-farm application, assisting with diet formulation, and sharing information on processing and feeding the high oleic acid soybean. Additionally, she has spoken at several conferences and on podcasts about her research and field experience with the high oleic soybean. She continues to collaborate with MSU and attend meetings and discussions with animal science faculty.
Her time at MSU helped shape Bales into the dairy nutritionist she is today and laid the foundational stones for her professional career.
