Sweet Three-peat: 3rd ‘Big Scoop’ win for Animal Sciences, WSU Creamery

Left, Ferdinand's Ice Cream Shoppe employee Matt Clark holds a cone of Huckleberry Ripple. Right, Lindsey Richmond, CUDS member and Animal Sciences student, works at the WSU Knott Dairy Farm.
The WSU Animal Sciences and Food Sciences programs worked together to win the Big Scoop. Left, Ferdinand’s Ice Cream Shoppe employee Matt Clark holds a cone of winning Huckleberry Ripple. Right, Lindsey Richmond, CUDS member and Animal Sciences student, at the WSU Knott Dairy Farm.

For the third year in a row, the Department of Animal Sciences at Washington State University has claimed the national ice cream trophy, the “Big Scoop.”

The department’s dairy students and faculty, partnering with the WSU Creamery, won their third American Society of Animal Sciences Ice Cream Competition.

Attendees at the Society’s annual meeting, held July 9 in Baltimore, Md., voted with their spoons to declare WSU’s creamy Huckleberry Ripple the winner.

“Once again, the combination of great milk, thanks to the efforts of our Animal Sciences students, and ice cream manufacturing expertise from students in the WSU-UI School of Food Science, has brought home the Big Scoop,” said Kris Johnson, interim chair of Animal Sciences. “This is a great example of two outstanding CAHNRS programs working together for the benefit of our students.”

The American Society of Animal Sciences' Big Scoop trophy.
The American Society of Animal Sciences’ Big Scoop trophy.

WSU competed against North Carolina State University and the University of Connecticut. The Animal Sciences department received $1,000 in prize money in its third year of collegiate competition for the Big Scoop to be spent on student activities, and will also host a traveling trophy through 2018.

The national award showcases not only WSU ice cream, but also the undergraduate programs and opportunities in Animal Sciences. The department prioritizes on-the-job learning for its students, many of whom learn about the dairy industry from cow to cone.

Contributing to the win is the creamery’s unique relationship with Knott Dairy Farm, a 150-cow farm located just outside of Pullman that gives students working dairy experience.

“We know exactly where our milk is coming from, and they give us extra-high-quality milk,” said John Haugen, Creamery manager.

WSU Creamery uses 1,700 gallons of milk per day from the Knott Dairy, which includes a small herd owned and managed by the Cooperative University Dairy Students (CUDS). Animal Science students follow best management practices that maintain animal health and wellbeing to produce wholesome food, including fantastic ice cream and Cougar Gold cheese.

The Big Scoop award “confirms we’re doing the right thing and that people like the product,” Haugen said.

Huckleberry Ripple is the top selling flavor at the campus’s Ferdinand’s Ice Cream Shoppe.