Alumni Spotlight

Name: Tera Barnhardt

Current Title: Partner Veterinarian

Major: B.S. Animal Sciences and Industry (2012), M.S. Animal Sciences and Industry (2015), Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (2014)

K-State College of Ag is proud to recognize alumni from all departments who continue to pursue their passion in their respective fields. It is through experience that we continue to grow as individuals and stewards of the industry. Through those experiences, we hope to be a continued resource for the next generation of K-State students to lean on for advice and continue to build our network!

Why K-State College of Agriculture, and what made you choose Animal Sciences & Industry as your major?

I spent some of my favorite years in Manhattan, Kansas. A part of the reason I chose Kansas State University was that it was very family-driven. I come from a family full of Wildcats. My parents are proud 1978 graduates and they raised four children who graduated from K-State. Apparently, we only marry Wildcats because all of our spouses are also K-State grads. Honestly, I was going to Kansas State University because I wanted to end up as a veterinarian and K-State has one of the best programs in the country.

The choice for my undergraduate, Master's and DVM came pretty seamlessly as a person who grew up in rural Kansas. My hometown is Satanta, which is down in the southwest corner of the state. I grew up on a family farm and ranch. We had cattle as a small portion of our business growing up and we mostly raised irrigated crops, but there are a lot of cattle out in that region. I spent a lot of time immersed in the industry seeing the economic impacts and different opportunities agricultural businesses brought to our rural communities. They're the reason we're flourishing out here, so it was important to me to go to Manhattan and gain a good understanding of what needed to be brought back to this area to serve my home community as well.

How did your time at K-State prepare you for your career?

I'm fortunate to have made some calculated moves to get my career where I wanted. Being a veterinarian in rural Kansas, I wanted to serve the bigger picture. I'm a person who keeps a consumer on my mind every day. While I am a veterinarian working with cattle, I'm thinking about putting food on the table for families just like yours and mine. It's really important to me every day and I hope that I can convey that in the conversations and opportunities I have. I have to connect with consumers and retailers and tell our story about how food is produced in rural America. From a 10,000-foot view, I am a beef and dairy veterinarian. I never thought that I would include dairy in my resume because I grew up wanting to very much return to the feedlot industry in southwest Kansas.

With the influx of dairy cattle in our area, I can stay close to home and I'm able to raise my family in a small community. I serve and work with some of the best people in the world, the caretakers who get to interact with cattle every single day. These aren't easy jobs. They're really hard jobs, even on the good days. I get to learn with them, coach them and make sure what we are sending out as a food product for people to enjoy with their families is safe, nutritious and delicious. You might think my only focus is keeping cattle healthy, but my focus has to be bigger than that. My focus has to be on the people who are taking care of the cattle, the environment in which we're trying to make these systems work and, of course, the animals that are trusted in our care. I learned a lot from many mentors at K-State and a lot of my training at the university instilled in me all three of those play a big role in what we do daily and how we can measure our success in the end.

The opportunities at K-State blew my mind. You never know where you're going to find somebody who impacts your life very deeply. Some of the courses that changed how I thought have shaped my career in unexpected ways. I remember taking a meat science class as an elective. It was a really powerful class for me to take from experts at K-State because at the end of the day, I'm in the meat business, right? We're making sure these cattle are healthy and productive and that our consumers enjoy the quality meat they’re investing in and serving to their families. Meat science was a class providing educational diversity and did not only focus on animal health or animal production. It showed the process from farm to fork.

Another class having a huge impact was a feedlot health class taught by Dr. Dan Thomson and Dr. Dan Upson. You don't get more entertaining or better people in the room when you have the ‘Dr. Dans’ lecturing to you. I had an incredible opportunity to catch a class at the end of Dr. Upson's illustrious career; he's a legend. I’m proud to be able to say I spent some quality time learning from him and taking the knowledge and wisdom that he had for many years and applying it to newer technologies we were learning about there on campus. It just made a really exciting impact on how I would view things for the rest of my career.

What advice would you give to current students in the K-State College of Agriculture?

The time that I spent in clubs and organizations goes so far beyond the title of the club. It's about the people and the connections you make and the professional development you receive.

I was a member of Sigma Alpha professional ag sorority, which had a really big impact on my life in professional development and leadership. I have a set of powerful women in my corner who I can reach out to who are serving the ag industry too. I was also a College of Agriculture Ambassador while I was on campus and the Ag Ambassador team is often leaned on to serve and advocate for new students and members of the K-State community. We could engage with alumni in different capacities while we were on campus and some of those connections still serve me well today. People will remember when you met them at a tailgating event at K-State and then you might be doing business with them 10 years later that you wouldn't have ever dreamed of while you're on campus.

I was also very involved in Collegiate Cattlewomen and this organization really shaped me to become an advocate for the beef industry and educate myself on what drives our consumers.

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