John Fetrow VMD, MBA, DABVP Dairy
Dr. John Fetrow grew up on a commercial poultry farm in Maryland, went to MIT for undergrad and then to veterinary school at the University of Pennsylvania. While doing his residency, he also completed an MBA at Penn’s Wharton School of Business. John has more than three decades of experience in on-farm dairy practice and academic work in dairy production medicine. John’s academic focus at the University of Minnesota was on the economics of operating decisions made on dairy farms, dairy production management, disease control, and drug use management on dairies. John enjoys a generally ordinary life with his wife. He has four remarkable grown daughters. He is a hobby beekeeper (3 hives) and when it is too cold to work outside enjoys making stained glass panels.
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Sandra Godden DVM, DVSc
Dr. Sandra Godden is a 1993 graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. After working for two years as an associate veterinarian in mixed practice in Eastern Ontario, she returned to complete a Doctor of Veterinary Science degree specializing in dairy production medicine. From 1998 to the present she has been a member of the Department of Population Medicine, University of Minnesota where she is involved with professional student teaching, applied research and outreach activities in dairy production medicine. Major academic interests include applied research in mastitis control, colostrum and calf health management. Sandra is a past president of the National Mastitis Council (NMC) and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP).
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Tim Goldsmith DVM, MPH, DACVPM
Dr. Tim Goldsmith received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Minnesota in 2001. After working in private practice specializing in bovine production medicine for several years in MN, IA and WI he returned to the University of Minnesota completing a residency program in veterinary public health and preventive medicine. While doing his residency he also completed a Masters in Public Health and became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. Since 2008, Tim has worked as an Assistant Clinical Professor with the Veterinary Population Medicine Department focusing on beef production medicine and veterinary student teaching, as well as with the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety where he is currently Co-Director of the Veterinary Public Health and Preventative Medicine Residency program. Tim’s current research interests are continuity of business planning, judicious antimicrobial use, and systems approaches to animal production. Away from work, Tim enjoys spending time with his wife and 2 daughters, and helping at his family's farm in Southeast, MN.
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Sara Davis, DVM
Dr. Sara Davis grew up in central MN on her family’s dairy farm, which is where her passion for cows and animal health began. She then attended the University of Minnesota for both her undergraduate and veterinary medicine degrees. Following graduation in 2019, she worked as an associate at a mixed animal practice in Minnesota prior to becoming a faculty member at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine in 2022. As a Ruminant Production Medicine Instructor, she has a large part in teaching hands-on clinical skills and practices to students in the food animal curriculum.
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Gerard Cramer DVM, DVSc
Dr. Gerard Cramer has spent his whole life finding ways to work with dairy cows. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, Gerard spent time running a dairy farm, owning a foot health specific veterinary practice and getting both a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Doctor of Veterinary Science degree from the University of Guelph. Joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 2013, Gerard splits his time between educating veterinary and graduate students and doing foot health related research. Outside of work, to relax Gerard spends time with his wife and 2 kids and enjoys playing soccer and running long distances.
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Erin Royster DVM, MS
Dr. Royster graduated from the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2011. She completed a Master of Science in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, with an emphasis in milk quality and udder health. Dr. Royster is currently an Instructor in Dairy Production Medicine at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Her areas of interest for research, teaching and outreach include milking equipment evaluation, milking parlor performance, on-farm mastitis diagnostics, and mastitis control. In addition, Dr. Royster is the faculty advisor for the University of Minnesota Laboratory for Udder Health.
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Luciano Caixeta DVM, PhD
After being awarded a DVM degree from his hometown veterinary school in Brazil, Dr. Luciano Caixeta moved to the United States to pursue further academic and clinical training. His first stop was at Cornell University in Central New York where he completed a Production Medicine Residency and a PhD. Later, Luciano spent two years at Colorado State University as a Clinical Instructor in Dairy Population Health Management before moving north to join the Dairy Production Medicine group at the University of Minnesota in 2017. His major research areas are the prevention and management of metabolic disease of dairy cattle. Outside of work, Luciano enjoys spending time with his wife Emily and their dog, as well as cooking and barbecuing.
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Whitney Knauer VMD, PhD
Dr. Knauer received her BS in Animal Science from the University of Vermont in 2006 and her VMD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 2010. After completing her veterinary degree, she completed an internship and residency in Ambulatory and Production Medicine at Cornell University in the College of Veterinary Medicine. In 2013, she joined the Department of Veterinary Population Medicine as a PhD student and worked with Dr. Sandra Godden in the area of Calf Health Management. Dr. Knauer’s thesis work is entitled “The Application of Precision Dairy Technologies to Detect Disease in Group Housed, Automatically Fed Pre-weaned dairy calves. Whitney joined the dairy group as an Assistant Professor in 2017 and instructs rotations in dairy production medicine and small ruminant and camelid production medicine. In her spare time, she enjoys running, rowing, and cycling in and around the twin cities.
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Scott Wells DVM, PhD, DACVPM
Dr. Scott Wells received his DVM from Michigan State University and then worked for several years in a Wisconsin veterinary practice which was predominantly dairy. He later earned his PhD in veterinary epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, after which he served as the dairy leader in the National Animal Health Monitoring System (within the Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health, USDA-APHIS-Veterinary Services) in Ft. Collins, CO. Scott has been a faculty member at the University of Minnesota since 1999 and is the Director of Academic Programs at the Center for Animal Health and Food Safety. His research interests are related to prevention and control of pathogens of cattle, including Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (Johne’s disease) and Mycobacterium bovis (bovine tuberculosis). He is board certified in the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and is currently Co-Chair of the National Johne’s Working Group. Outside of work, Scott enjoys time with his wife and four almost grown children, raising a few market lambs, and various outdoor sporting activities.
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