By Jim Massey
Freelance writer
Megan Lauber has spent more than a third of her life attending classes in the UW-Madison Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, and she isn’t done yet.
Lauber, who has earned a bachelor’s of science degree and a master’s of science degree in dairy science, is closing in on her Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Fricke, a professor and extension specialist in dairy cattle reproduction. Lauber has been in Madison since 2014, after growing up on her family’s dairy farm and graduating from Union Grove High School.
“When you like it so much and things are going so well, you just keep at it,” Lauber says with a smile. “I now have an opportunity for a pre-doctorate fellowship that is funded until 2027, so my plan is to give that a try. I really enjoy conducting research to answer questions and then being able to translate that to farmers.”
If she continues on that track, she won’t complete her Ph.D. until her pre-doctoral fellowship is complete. Her project aims to understand how semen processing affects sperm characteristics and embryo development to improve fertility with sexed semen in dairy herds.
Lauber’s interest in dairy science traces back to her family’s 90-cow registered Holstein herd. She was involved in 4-H and showed cattle from the time she was little.
She entered college as a pre-veterinary student, not really thinking about the other options that are out there.
“For me, why wouldn’t I go to Madison and go for dairy science?” she says. “I love science, I love physiology and learning, and I love dairy cattle. If there’s a major that combines those things, sign me up.”
During her undergraduate and master’s degree training, she learned how much she enjoyed doing research, and her vet school aspirations faded. Her goal now is to continue to do research and become an extension educator.
“I really enjoy asking scientific questions, where you always try to seek and find answers,” she says. “Typically for me the most interesting part is it always leads to more questions. We know a lot, but we don’t know everything. There is still a lot to learn and discover.”
The dairy industry has made great strides in reproductive management, but yet there are still more questions to explore, she says.
Inseminations with sexed semen are now serving as the main strategy to produce replacement animals in dairy herds. But Lauber notes that a challenge that still persists is that sexed semen has conception rates that are 80 to 90 percent of conventional semen. Her research focuses on optimizing the fertility of sexed semen in lactating dairy cows and heifers and implementing precision management strategies.
She is conducting studies in an attempt to determine why some of the embryos that are fertilized stop developing at an early cellular stage, and if that development delay persists in vivo in the cow. The research is trying to determine why some pregnancies are interrupted when different semen types are used.
Fricke says Lauber’s research could be important for the dairy industry.
“We’re trying to figure out how to best optimize the use of sexed semen, because sexed semen is more expensive than conventional semen,” he says. “We’re trying to understand what is the mechanism of the decrease in fertility.”
The pre-doctoral fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides flexible funding that Lauber could take with her if she gets a research and extension job at a university before the funding runs out. She has already been offered one college-level teaching position, but with this fellowship project just underway, she wasn’t ready to make the jump to academia.
Lauber got her start in research as a college sophomore under the tutelage of Laura Hernandez, a lactation physiology professor within the ADS department. She latched onto a position in Hernandez’s lactation biology lab, and found the experience more interesting than she thought it would be.
“I got to ask fun questions and work with cows, while learning some of the laboratory side at the same time,” she says. She worked in Hernandez’s lab as a research assistant until she earned her bachelor’s degree in dairy science in 2018.
She was thinking about what to do next when Hernandez suggested she consider graduate school. She said she didn’t have funding for a master’s-level student, but she suggested reaching out to Fricke to see if he might have an open position.
Fricke had funding from ABS Global to bring on a student, and she embarked on the sexed semen project. Lauber’s work involved field trials on heifers bred with sexed semen on three Dane County farms.
“I really like research, but never thought of it as option for a career path,” she says. “I never knew anybody personally who did research as a career. But now I see it as part of my future.”
What she has found the most rewarding has been to take her research findings into the field with presentations to farmers.
“I love talking with veterinarians, industry members and farmers about my projects,” she says. “Getting their thoughts on what’s happening on the farm and trying to find those solutions has been phenomenal. That’s my roots, helping farmers like my dad. It’s pretty neat to see technologies you’re working on being implemented on farms.
“To see something you’re working on have an impact on somebody’s life, there’s just nothing better.”
“Megan is a fantastic student – I’ve trained a number of Ph.D. students and she’s among the best,” Fricke says. “She’s an incredibly hard worker, she’s really bright. Some students just understand how research works and how to ask good questions. She’s just a really good thinker.”
Fricke says he believes Lauber will achieve her goal of finding a research and extension position at a land grant university, and the university where she works will be lucky to have her.
“Megan helps me with teaching, and the students love her,” he says. “She has a really great personality and connects well with people. She’ll do great work and she’ll have a tremendous impact on the dairy industry moving forward.”