The calf was on the way. But the baby’s mama needed help. Dr. Mary Ellen Hicks was ready.

Students at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will tell you that Hicks, a much-acclaimed Professor of Animal Science for the past 33 years, is always ready, whether it’s in the classroom, in an advising session, or assisting in the delivery of a new calf on ABAC’s J.G. Woodroof Farm.

“We hope that calf’s mama will get it done on her own, but I do help those that have problems,” Hicks said. “I don’t like spending long nights up here. But it happens. We pull students in on it too. I expect we had close to 100 calves at ABAC this spring.”

Managed by Hicks’ husband, Doug, ABAC’s cattle herd numbers 120 or so. Doug Hicks, an ABAC employee since 2002, is the beef herd manager and in charge of forage production.

“When I started teaching at ABAC in 1989, we had a herd of maybe 25,” Dr. Mary Ellen Hicks said. “The herd had to grow because our number of students has grown.”

Calves weigh about 75 pounds when they’re born. For the next eight months, their mamas take care of them.

“We don’t do a lot of feeding until they are weaned,” Hicks said. “She’s the primary food source until then. We’ll weigh them before they go to a feed yard in Iowa. They’ll leave here at about 750 pounds.

“The steers go to a feed yard in November and then on to a processing plant in May or June of the next year. By that time, they each weigh between 1,200 to 1,400 pounds. ABAC gets paid on the quality of the carcass.

From birth this spring to the feed yard in November to the processing plant next May to a steak on the plate for your Independence Day celebration. The Circle of Life continues.

“We usually take some ABAC students to Iowa on spring break every year,” Hicks said. “We have visited the large processing facilities. We go to feed yards. Then we go and eat steak at a nice restaurant.