The Alabama Beef Checkoff Program recently met to review projects and allocate funding. Kayla Greer with the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association sat down with us to tell us more.
“Members of the Alabama Beef Checkoff Council met at Auburn University last week to review and evaluate production research proposals that are seeking funding through the Alabama Beef Checkoff Program,” Greer said.
“The council was hosted for the meeting and for a really delicious lunch by the Department of Animal Sciences at Auburn University and it was a busy day and it was a good day in the academic space of Alabama’s beef industry. So at that meeting, each researcher presented a five-minute synopsis of project goals and tactics and then council members determined which of those projects would move forward with funding. It’s important to note that the council members were super impressed with the wide swath of proposals and with the researchers and graduate students who presented those projects,” described Greer.
“After that was all wrapped up, we went into a deliberation period and it was a long and tough deliberation because there were so many good projects, but the council worked hard and narrowed it down to five projects for a total of $44,840 in funding allocations. So first, we have a forage and weed study that we’re going to be funding called, Characterizing the Fate of Residual Herbicide in Alabama Forages. Second, we have a processing study,” said Greer.
“It’s titled, Statewide Assessment of Beef Finishing Systems and Producers’ Needs in Alabama. Third, there is an animal health and well-being study. It is titled, it’s kind of a long title, it’s called, Precision Monitoring of Beef, Calf and Replacement Heifer Performance Following Bovine Appeasing Pheromone Administration During Fence-Line Weaning. So, long title but a really practical study,” Greer added.
“Fourth, we have a fertility study titled, The Physiological Characteristics of Beef Heifers That Failed to Conceive During Their First Breeding Season. And last but certainly not least, another really practical study on nutrition and it’s titled, How Does Supplement Selection Alter Warm-Season Forage Digestibility? So, those are the five projects that we opted to fund this year for just over $44,000 and Beef Checkoff Council members, again, were just so impressed with all of the proposals that were put forward, but these were the five that were selected by the council to best represent the state’s beef cattle industry and production research that is needed across the state,” added Greer.
Audio Reporting by Elizabeth Sanders for Southeast AgNet.