Ag & Range

6Aug. 19, 2021 | The Eagle | csceagle.com Ag Range&

ABOVE: A calf suckles its mother at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center. LEFT: Grass covers a bunker at the USMARC. Both photos courtesy USMARC New USDA ARS column to focus on state’s beef industry

 By Alexa Johnson USDA Communication Specialist

Hello Nebraska, this is Alexa Johnson, of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), Clay Center, Nebraska. I earned my bachelor’s degrees in Animal Science, focusing on Production Livestock and Management and in Grazing Livestock Systems, with a minor in the Beef Industry, from the University of Nebraska.

In 2020, I accepted the position of Communication Specialist for USMARC, where I work on research reports, internal announcements for all our employees, content for the internal and public websites, and news stories I also host tours and meetings, and perform other tasks for the Center.

Have you ever heard of USMARC? Yes, no, or maybe? Well, I hope to share updates or activities from the Center each month moving forward.

To start, I want to help you understand what we do at USMARC; what resources we have; and how our scientists perform research in settings similar to Nebraska’s “on-farm” reality. In the future months, I will share speci c research projects with you, why our research is important to ranchers, managers, the livestock industries, and everyone in the community, illustrating the impacts and solutions our research provides for our stakeholders. For this initial column, I hope to help you better understand who we are and what we do.

Very brie y for history fanatics, it’s relevant to start with the fact that USMARC was originally the Naval Ammunition Depot for WWII. at is an amazing story. e WWII Naval Ammunition Depot closed in June 1964 and the USDA was granted 36,000 acres for the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center. e Center grounds we use today for our research still include a lot of that history, which is often interesting to our many visitors. e Center employs about 110 federal employees, including o ce sta , lab technicians, scientists, and 120 state or University of Nebraska employees who support our farming, livestock care, construction, electrical, auto maintenance, and other agriculture positions. Several employees also volunteer for the on-Center re department and some are trained emergency medical technicians who serve at the Center and in their home communities. With over 200 employees, it is crucial for everyone to understand their responsibilities to seamlessly provide for the research programs as well management of the farm and ranch operations.

USMARC conducts a range of research that not only improves e ciency in the meat animal industry, but also helps keep consumers safe, including improvement of meat safety and quality, animal production and e ciency, reproductive e ciency and lifetime productivity, animal health and well-being, and reducing the environmental impact of livestock production. e USMARC sheep ock has 1,800 ewes consisting of the Romanov, Katahdin, Polypay, and Su olk breeds. We also have a composite breed (Composite IV), which is a combination of ½ Romanov, ¼ Katahdin, and ¼ White Dorper. is composite breed was developed from a direct request from sheep industry producers. e sheep crew cares for these animals and assists our scientists with multiple ongoing studies. A few projects include genetic improvement, resistance to pneumonia, ewe behavior, udder scoring and mastitis, and low-input pasture lambing systems.

In the Swine Unit, we have 500 sows and farrow (birth) 20 litters each week. Our sows and gilts are used to improve reproductive e ciency and lifetime productivity. Some weaned piglets are also used for feed e ciency studies. To protect the animals from any outside illness or disease, we require all employees and visitors to shower before entering the facility.

We have several intensive cattle research facilities where we house cattle in individual feed research or conduct research in small groups. Two barns are feed e ciency barns with feeding systems that allow scientists to measure daily feed intake of each individual animal. USMARC crew members watch the cattle carefully to make sure they are comfortable and receive their share of feed each day.

USMARC also has a 6,400 head capacity feedlot. At weaning, most calves go to the feedlot until they go to market where growth, e ciency, genetic, health, food safety, and carcass data is collected. However, some may be moved to graze cover crop or cornstalks in the fall or allowed to graze various pasture forages for research programs or heifer development. At the feedlot, we use a specially equipped barn to evaluate feed utilization e ciency of the beef animals. is is a high priority for cattlemen across the industry because feed is the highest single cost of production. is barn is equipped with Electronic Identi cation (EID) readers and specialized bunks that measure how much feed is consumed by each steer for each feeding event. is allows us to accurately measure the feed e ciency of the cattle with the goal of reducing feed costs for producers. e largest animal group at USMARC is the cow herd with about 8,000 momma cows. Included in this large herd are several smaller herds. e largest of these is the 4000 head Germplasm Evaluation (GPE) herd which includes the top 18 registered breeds across the United States. is is the largest and longest running research herd in the world focused on characterizing modern beef genetics and performance. Other beef studies at the Center focus on reproductive e ciency, genetics and genomics, cow/calf nutrition, alternative production systems, animal health and well-being, anti-microbial resistance, manure management, forage management, heifer development and so much more! A very busy place!

Everything discussed to this point including the personnel, livestock, facilities, equipment, and farm programs mentioned are focused on achieving our mission of research. In future months I will share more about our farm and ranch management operations and dig deeper into our diverse and exciting research programs.