Professor Richard A. Zinn received the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) 2000 Ruminant Nutrition Research Award, sponsored by the American Feed Industry Association. 

The award was presented during the joint meeting of ASAS and the American Dairy Science Association in Baltimore, Maryland, July 24-28. 

Richard, a native of El Centro, received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Animal Science from Brigham Young University in 1974 and 1975, respectively, and the Ph.D. in Nutrition from the University of Kentucky in 1978. After completing a postdoctoral research appointment with Oklahoma State University in 1981, he joined the faculty of the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis. Richard maintains an active and prolific research program at the Desert Research and Extension Center in Imperial Valley in the areas of health, nutrition and management of feedlot cattle.

During the past ten years Richard has published 56 refereed papers, 118 popular presentations or reports and three book chapters. He has advised six Ph.D. students and seven M.S. students and made numerous presentations at nutrition conferences and symposia. His fluency in Spanish makes him a popular speaker on nutrition programs in Mexico and throughout Latin America.

 One of Richard's primary research contributions has been the determination of effects of steam flaking of various grains on digestive function and performance in feedlot and lactating dairy cattle. His extensive research in the area of protein nutrition provides a broad base of data on factors affecting ruminal microbial growth, site and extent of protein digestion and metabolizable protein requirements of feedlot cattle. He has also contributed greatly to our understanding of the utilization of dietary fat, indicating higher net energy values for fat than were previously available in feed composition tables. Richard has made a significant and lasting contribution to ruminant nutrition, technology for feeding cattle and the feed industry.