30 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN October 2025 “I like the fact the information will come from an independent source. The information provides needed and valuable feed ration information for a specific set of circumstances. There is no pressure to buy a certain product or do business with a specific provider.” - Jim V. Broken Bow, NE Join the prime producers! Order your feed testing kit today! 308-234-2418 www.wardlab.com 4007 Cherry Ave. Kearney, NE 68847 PEERS CATTLE CONNECTIONS AND A FEEDLOT RESEARCH UPDATE FROM USMARC MARK BOGGESS | U.S. MEAT ANIMAL RESEARCH CENTER DIRECTOR Greetings! U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) strives to stay in step with the beef industry conversation so that we can best describe the Agricultural Research Service world-class research programs going forward. Consequently, I was very interested to see the Beef Industry Federation presentation from Ty Lawrence, Ph.D., professor of animal science and director of the Beef Carcass Research Center at West Texas A&M University, where he predicted that beef carcass weights might eventually reach 1,500 pounds. The logic behind that prediction certainly makes sense, but the implications are extraordinary! For example, what will the dams of those steers look like? Will the industry be mandated to use a terminal-sire breeding program to limit mature cow weights? How will feed and nutrition programs change? What evolution will be required for feedlot penning and handling systems, trucking and transportation, etc.? This conversation will certainly contribute to our interesting times! Another way we keep in step is through direct interaction with producers and stakeholders. At USMARC, we have a formal Beef Focus Group that includes producers and industry stakeholders from across the country. These are great conversations! We also have an external Livestock Industry Advocacy Council (LIAC) that includes numerous beef industry stakeholders. The LIAC is new but is doing a great job representing the needs of the beef industry. Currently, we have numerous research efforts focused on beef systems and beef production, including work focused on nutrition and growth, heifer development and lifetime productivity, genetic and genomic systems, genome editing for disease prevention, bovine congenital heart disease, salmonella, feed efficiency, feedlot surface issues, tenderness and meat quality and more. Each of these areas of focus has great teams doing great work. We are also developing a living-lab approach for the center, which I will feature in a future article. We have also expanded the famous Germplasm Evaluation Herd to locations at Texas A&M and El Reno, Okla., with more to come, which will allow us to begin to better evaluate the relationships between genetic background and local production environments. CONTINUED ON PAGE 32
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