News | UC Davis Department of Animal Science

Kebreab to lead CA&ES global engagement and the World Food Center

Department of Animal Science Professor Ermias Kebreab has been appointed to the new position of Associate Dean of Global Engagement and Director of the World Food Center, effective January 15, 2019.

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Justin Buchanan, a UC Davis postdoctoral researcher for Alison Van Eenennaam of the Department of Animal Science, was hired by Simplot as a geneticist at the project’s conclusion.

Bull Market - Collaboration with beef industry tests advanced breeding technologies

By Robin DeRieux

COWS ARE SPECIAL. As ruminants, they eat grass and other plants that are inedible to people, transforming forage into steak and hamburgers and other tasty high-protein beef products.

Over the past few decades, the beef industry has made significant improvements in productivity—generating more food from fewer numbers of cattle. Better breeding and other innovations in animal science research have played a starring role in these advances.

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UC Davis ranks first in the world in Plant and Animal Sciences

UC Davis scores first in programs for plant and animal sciences in U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Global Universities” report issued Monday (Oct. 24).

The rankings, which focus on overall research and academic reputation, rather than specific undergraduate or graduate programs, show UC Davis second in the world in agricultural sciences, and fourth in environment and ecology.

McLean and Murray aim to preserve genetics of Santa Cruz Island horses

by Joe Proudman, UC Davis

IT'S HOT AT EL CAMPEON FARMS, even for early August. A hard wind accompanies the heat, blowing through the Conejo Valley, where this horse ranch sits in Southern California. Abby Followwill is saddled on a horse named Vince. His golden-brown coat and blond mane stand out against the saturated blue sky and dusty corral where Followwill is training with him.

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Pablo Ross (photo by Brian Baer, copyright protected)

Pablo Ross leads national cow genomics effort

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded the University of California, Davis, $2.5 million over four years for a national cow genomics project.

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Professor Ermias Kebreab with the UC Davis Department of Animal Science is conducting research with dairy cows to find out if seaweed will reduce methane emissions from cattle. Results are promising, but not final. (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis)

Research led by Ermias Kebreab asks if seaweed can cut methane emissions on dairy farms

Early results from research at the University of California, Davis, indicate that just a touch of the ocean algae in cattle feed could dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions from California’s 1.8 million dairy cows.

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Dairy resident Teresa Greenhut shovels feed (Photo by Karin Higgins)

A Barn Good Place to Live - Barn Residency at UC Davis

The Barn Residency Program, which has been around for more than 50 years, lets students live up to two years at a single campus animal facility and apply to a different barn when their tenure is up.

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Associate professor Anne Todgham studies stress in sea creatures

Anne Todgham on how how Antarctic fish cope with climate stress

Some Antarctic fish living in the planet’s coldest waters are able to cope with the stress of rising carbon dioxide levels in the ocean. They can even tolerate slightly warmer waters. But they can’t deal with both stressors at the same time, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

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Animal Science Professors Jim Murray and Elizabeth Maga

Murray & Maga improve goat milk with genetic engineering

Genetic engineering makes it possible to improve agriculture in ways that traditional breeding cannot.

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Huaijun Zhou - Breaking the code to make poultry more resistant to disease and heat stress

Using discoveries in genetics to make poultry more resistant to disease and heat stress

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