Pigs eat racacha

A native Andean root crop called racacha produces a corm, a fibrous lump at the base of the plant from which the carrot-like roots grow. This corm is discarded by farmers, but it shouldn't be: it can be peeled, grated, dried and fed to hogs, replacing some of the expensive corn-based feed that hog farmers use around here.

Student Irma Villegas demonstrated this with her graduation project: using up to 30% of racacha corms in the diet doesn't affect hog weight gain, but does reduce feed costs significantly. "Hog feed is about 80% of the cost of production," she says. "By using racacha corms that were once discarded, farmers can make more money."

After receiving her final grade, Irma's mother stood and spoke. "I am so proud of my daughter. I grew up thinking that women were supposed to stay at home. Now my girl is a professional -- her dream was one that I never even considered."


Photo: Irma stands with her mother, brother and daughter after her successful defense.

The majority of students at the College are women, and even in the male-dominated vet department, over a third of the students are women. One returning vet student, Betty Flores, told me earlier in the semester that once you are out there working, things are hard for women. "Men don't think you can do the job," she said. "You lose a lot of opportunities. But we can stick together, and the more of us there are, the easier it will be."

Well, Irma is out there now. And we know she will succeed, whatever it takes.