52 Nebraska Cattleman October 2023 NC Foundation By Galen Erickson, Ph.D. Nebraska Cattle Industry Professor of Animal Science University of Nebraska-Lincoln Beef Innovations This year has been filled with challenges and excitement. Feed costs, cattle markets, heat and drought in the east and rain in the west have made things interesting. Cattle feeders will want to watch feed costs on grain, forages and byproducts. Managing risk for when you refill with calves that are very well priced (for sellers) to ensure a sufficient fat cattle price will be important, too. I wanted to provide an update on the Beef Innovation Hub and what that is doing or means to our cattle producers as well as touch on some current research areas. In 2016, the University of NebraskaLincoln (UNL) embarked on an initiative to be even more purposeful in studying beef systems from birth through harvest. Beef Innovation: A Hub for Beef Excellence was initiated to bring together more disciplines and get input from thought leaders on what problems or issues UNL can help address within beef systems. This community involves geneticists, nutritionists, physiologists, veterinarians, meat specialists, engineers, range scientists, natural resources specialists, sociologists and others to address issues within six themes. The vision for this approach is environmentally sound, resilient, socially responsible and economically viable beef for Nebraska and beyond. Our mission then is to advance, support and communicate continuous improvement of beef production, economic vitality and natural resources through innovative research, education and Extension. We will be communicating more regularly what we are doing, and align under one brand to share research progress, deliver science-based decision tools and assistance codeveloped with stakeholders, and beef-up our education process and student experiences. You can judge our success if you hear more from us and we solve some of your day-to-day challenges and address industry issues. We are excited that Maria Tibbetts has joined our community as the new communication specialist to help our talented Extension team across the state and the Beef Hub share what we are doing. As always, if you have ideas, challenges or feedback on how we are doing, feel free to reach out to me or your university contacts. I want to thank Homer Buell and Clay Mathis for their leadership on the external advisory committee and all the members who have given time, energy and thoughtful input to help us do better by and for you. Clay and Homer will rotate off this year for greener pastures, and I am excited with the new members and leadership to help us into 2024. This current group can be found at https://beefinnovation.unl.edu/externaladvisory-committee. For a research update specific to our beef nutrition program, I want to highlight a few areas of research. With the change in implant regulations, more emphasis has been put on use of implants in backgrounding programs and impact of wintering/summering programs. Jim MacDonald, Ph.D., has been addressing this the past few years with a couple of student programs. Be sure to see those results in our beef reports. This project arose from a listening session with a stocker/backgrounding Extension group organized by Extension educators and funding from Merck Animal Health. We have continued to work on feeding distillers grains and the impact of supply disruption (removal during the feeding period) or inconsistent supply (varying inclusion during the feeding period). We will have projects in the 2024 Beef Report, and additional work is ongoing this year. We are also evaluating some of the new fractionated products from ethanol plants. The Nebraska Corn Board has been very supportive of the beef industry and provided funding over the years to really make Nebraska a leader in terms of feeding distillers grains to beef cattle. Last, we are evaluating fat or oil sources for finishing cattle, although many sources of fat are not economical once price gets above about 2.5 times the price of corn. The department continues to experience change. Some faculty are retiring or going elsewhere, and new hires will hopefully be possible as we move forward. For our specific program, Andrea Watson, Ph.D., has been a great asset and done wonderful things in our distance master’s program. She works great with students and loves teaching. She has taken a new teaching position and is moving on from UNL. Rick Stock, Ph.D., who many know was in the department before my time here and then went to Cargill and their Sweet Bran group, came back to us in a position to help the program over the last few years as we were expanding. He was a great help with our research infrastructure and operations. He has decided to fully retire and enjoy more time to himself and fewer headaches from me. As you all know, having great people is what will allow us to do what is needed from our research, outreach and education perspectives. Last, we are excited for Deb VanOverbeke, Ph.D., and her new role as our department head. She has Nebraska roots and brings great experiences to move us forward. NC
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