Beef cattle physiologist joins AgriLife Research
Research to focus on reproduction physiology BY ADAM RUSSELL
George Perry, Ph.D., was recently hired as a Texas A&M AgriLife Research cattle physiologist and associate professor in the Texas A&M Department of Animal Science. Perry said he was excited to join AgriLife Research at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Overton. He said he looks forward to producing research that will directly impact the beef cattle industry in Texas and the southern U.S. Decades of cattle physiology research data at the Overton center will speed his transition and help him begin work on his research objectives immediately, he said. “There’s tremendous opportunity here,” he said. “With the existing research herd and historic physiological data, it will give me a jump start on past performance, and I am looking forward to getting the ball rolling.”
Beef cattle reproduction research
P
erry’s research focuses on reproduction efficiency in beef cattle on both the male and female side in areas like male and female fertility, sperm transport, early breeding and early calf development. Studying reproductive physiology is important in beef cattle herds because weeks and months lost to ineffective natural or artificial breeding can cost producers a calf, and possibly more over several breeding seasons. Perry said his goal is to identify physiological traits in male and female cattle that increase the likelihood animals are bred as early and efficiently as possible. For instance, producers want to know more about replacement heifers, and the focus is
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