Education/Training
B.S. in Animal Science, 1979
Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana
Joined LSU: September 29, 1980
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Areas of Specialization/Research
Supervise experimental beef cattle crossbreeding herds, supervise feeding, heat checking, A.I. vaccinating, breeding, weighing, calving, vet care and all record keeping. Maintain proper inventory control for all equipment and livestock, pasture management.
Research interests at the Crossbred Beef Unit: We evaluate purebred Brahman steers from herd sires of Brahman breeders in Louisiana. We receive the calves in the fall. They are castrated, vaccinated and allowed to recover before being put on winter ryegrass pasture. The cattle are evaluated for post-weaning growth, feedlot performance and carcass traits. Carcass traits include fat thickness, rib eye area, carcass weight, marbling and color scores. We also test for tenderness of loin steaks age 7 and 14 days. This area of research is timely because of the emphasis on consumer acceptance traits in the beef industry. A follow-up study involves using crossbred cows with varying amounts of Brahman inheritance to progeny test Brahman sires that are sons of Brahman bulls identified above as being able to transmit genetics to purebred steers for desirable carcass traits. We hope to test the degree of inheritance from these relatives and also evaluate the degree of Brahman inheritance on growth and carcass traits on the progeny. Steer calves will be evaluated for post-weaning growth, feedlot performance and carcass traits, including measures of tenderness.
Research interests at the Purebred Beef Unit: We use industry Angus and Polled Hereford sires through Al that have high or low maternal EPS's to produce purebred daughters to evaluate milk yield and reproduction. These cattle are milked, with a mechanical milking machine four times during their lactation to measure milk yield. The assumption is that we can produce Angus and Polled Hereford daughters with genetic potential higher than can be met by the nutritional value of our forages. Thus, the high genetic potential cows may sacrifice reproduction to produce more milk. Data collected so far indicate that daughters of the high milk sires produce more milk and wean heavier calves than the low milk cows; however, there have been no differences in reproductive performance. This is a cooperative project with seven other land-grant universities in the Southern Region. |