46 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN December 2024 PEERS NCF ENDOWMENT UPDATES The Nebraska Cattlemen Foundation (NCF) provides grants to professors and instructors annually through the Nebraska Beef Industry Endowment and the Nebraska Range and Conservation Endowment. These grants honor professors and instructors who are providing cutting-edge research and/ or student instruction in beef industry-related or range management and conservation-related areas. In December 2023, NCF awarded a Nebraska Beef Industry Endowment grant to Tommy Wheeler, Ph.D., and a Nebraska Range and Conservation Endowment grant to Mitchell Stephenson, Ph.D. Following are reports on how they utilized the grants within their programs. TOMMY WHEELER, PH.D., ARS DISTINGUISHED SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST, RESEARCH LEADER MEAT SAFETY AND QUALITY RESEARCH UNIT, U.S. MEAT ANIMAL RESEARCH CENTER I would like to thank the Nebraska Cattlemen Foundation for honoring me with the Beef Industry Endowment Award. I’d like to share about the work I have done with the support that accompanies this award. All raw beef trimmings destined for making ground beef are sampled and tested for pathogens (primarily E. coli O157:H7) in federally inspected meat processing facilities. We had previously developed a better sampling methodology for the pathogen testing for beef trimmings. This methodology had been commercialized as the MicroTally Swab (MT-Swab) and was widely adopted by the beef processing industry. The pathogen test samples are collected manually using the MT-Swab to scrub the beef trim on the top of combo bins of trimmings. The swab then becomes the sample that is tested. We had then modified the MT-Swab by making it into a mitt that fits your gloved hand to improve ease and reliability of sample collection from a combo bin of beef trimmings. The new MicroTally Mitt (MT-Mitt) needed to be validated to verify it was at least as good as, or better, than the previous method so that beef processors could start using it. I used the endowment award to conduct the validation testing of the new MT-Mitt sampling. I performed trials and compared them using the MT-Swab to the new MT-Mitt. Samples were collected on numerous days from five processing plants. The results of these trials demonstrated that manual sampling of raw beef trimmings using the MT-Mitt was equivalent to the MT-Swab at recovering bacteria. Thus, the MT-Mitt method provides an alternative sampling method with equivalent bacterial recovery and significant implementation advantages for some applications regarding labor and ease of use relative to other approved methods for sampling beef trimmings. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service has accepted the data as equivalent. The MT-Mitt has now been commercialized and is available for the meat processing industry to implement as their sampling method, and this process is already underway. MITCHELL STEPHENSON, PH.D., RANGE MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST, ASSOCIATE CENTER DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN, PANHANDLE RESEARCH, EXTENSION AND EDUCATION CENTER In Nebraska’s Panhandle, rangelands cover nearly 70 percent of the land area, highlighting the importance of these ecosystems for both the beef industry and ecological conservation. However, annual invasive grasses, particularly cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), present ongoing challenges, competing with native grasses for limited soil moisture and essential nutrients. Over recent years, we have taken an integrated approach to research invaded rangelands to better understand the scale of this challenge and opportunities for management. Utilizing satellite-based remote-sensing data, we have identified areas within Banner and Scottsbluff counties with the highest cover of annual forbs and grasses. This has allowed us to focus management strategies on these high-risk areas, evaluating the effects of relatively new herbicides such as Imazapic and Indaziflam. Research over the last few years has indicated these herbicides are highly effective in reducing cheatgrass cover and improving responses of perennial native grasses. Our findings showed that perennial grass production was nearly 2.5 times greater in treated compared to untreated areas, highlighting the impact of cheatgrass invasion on perennial native grass production and overall rangeland health. In addition to herbicide treatments, we have explored the use of targeted cattle grazing in early spring as a management tool. Our research shows that cattle consume significant amounts of cheatgrass, with peak grazing periods averaging 38 days from late April to early June. However, cheatgrass preference among cattle varied with annual conditions. After seed maturation, cattle reduced selection for cheatgrass, grazing more heavily on native perennial grasses. GPS tracking further revealed that as cheatgrass matured, cattle spent more time in native grass areas without cheatgrass compared to those with cheatgrass. Early-season grazing reduced cheatgrass seed production by 38 to 77 percent compared to ungrazed areas, highlighting the potential of targeted grazing to lower cheatgrass seed production while still providing a high-quality forage for livestock in early spring. Support from the Nebraska Cattlemen Foundation Range and Conservation Endowment Award has been instrumental in furthering this research and contributing to better understanding of sustainable management options for invasive annual grasses on western Nebraska rangelands. ~NC~
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