Progress 05/15/13 to 11/14/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The 2013 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Research Symposium was held in Oklahoma City, OK from June 12-15, 2013. It was attended by over 500 people, which included residents of 37 different states across the United States and several other countries. The conference reached a broad audience, including commercial and seedstock beef producers, extension personnel, scientific researchers, and allied industry stakeholders. This proposal allowed the conference to increase the reach of hte programming to a greater number of graduate students. Ten graduate student travel awards were provided for students all across the country. As stated in the project narrative, these awards were targeted towards underrepresented groups, including women and minorities, and this goal was achieved. These ten students represented eight different universities and included Justin Buchanan (Oklahoma State University), Erika Downey (Texas A&M University), Melinda Ellison (University of Wyoming), Breno Fragomeni (University of Georgia), Erika Lundy (Iowa State University), Lauren Schiermiester (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Jose Antonio Torres-Vazquez (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Bryan Welly (University of California-Davis), Jian Zeng (Iowa State University), and Xi Zeng (Colorado State University). The National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB) Symposium was held one evening and contained a program centered around the use of sexed semen in the beef industry. The conference presentations included general session speakers each morning for all attendees, and breakout sessions in the afternoons, where participants could choose the session that best fit their needs and knowledge level. Breakout sessions included information on advancements in live animal, carcass, and end product, selection decisions, producer applications, cowherd efficiency and adaptability, genetic prediction, and emerging technology. All conference activities, including tours, were designed to facilitate the transfer of technical scientific knowledge to the end user and to increase communication between all sectors of the industry. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Numerous graduate students attended this meeting, many through the support of the travel scholarships awarded as a result of the funding in this proposal. This opportunity provided them not only the opportunity to attend the meeting and learn about new scientific knowledge, but to network and learn from allied industry stakeholders and producers. One unique opportunity offered to graduate students in attendnace is to see how the scientific knowledge generated in their field is applied to producers and to discuss technology transfer to the beef industry. This will help them obtain employment after graduate school and help these students to think about how their research applies to the beef industry and to producers themselves. This becomes increasingly important as students move on to industry, where producers must be willing and financially able to purchase or utilize a product being commercialized, or to academia, where they may be involved with integrated grant proposals. The conference also provided the opportunity for professional development for all of the attendees, including university personnel, allied industry, and government. There was tremendous opportunity to learn about new scientific developments, network with current and future colleagues, and to develop collaborations that may shape the beef industry of the future. Producers had the opportunity to develop skills, learn about new tools, and obtain information that will help them to determine which technologies will have positive return on their investment and will help create a better beef product for consumers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? There were numerous extension personnel present, including over 20 county and area extension educators from the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service and numerous educators from other states. Not only were they exposed to new genetic and genomic information that they may have been unaware of previously, but they now have additional knowledge that they can take back to their respective states and constituents for a much broader dissemination and impact from this propopsal. The BIF conference has a long-standing tradition of communication with extension and extension training, as evidenced by the inclusion of extension into BIF's mission. This allows the extension educators to return home and have a much wider impact than just reaching the conference attendees alone. They can reach out to their local communities through their own producer programming, as well as through 4-H and FFA programs. Additionally, this knowledge will help them address consumers in their local communities and help educate them on beef production practices and their strong foundation in science. Additionally, many producers get information from their fellow producers. Anytime we can reach out to prodcuers in the local community, we have the opportunity to create a "domino effect" with neighboring producers. The nature of the conference as a traveling venue helps to facilitate these interactions. Finally, the proceedings and archived presentation audio is available online through several venues including a specialized conference site and the BIF website. This allows the educational materials produced during this conference to reach a worldwide audience of beef producers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have accomplished all of the major goals of the project and the conference was a success. We did not have an attendance of over 700, which was the record attendance many years ago, but the meeting was well-attended and had over 500 participants, which is one of the largest meetings in the last few years. The conference evaluations were strong (the lowest programmatic score was a 4.0 out of 5.0, with the majority of the program rating ~4.3) and 88% of respondents said that the conference had or will have an impact on the beef industry. Many of the conference attendees noted that their favorite activity was talking to leading scientists and educators and events which helped foster communication among attendees and all sectors of the industry were consistent favorites. Eighty percent of respondents indicated that they would likely make changes in their beef cattle operation based on the knowledge they gained at the conference. When producers who indicated that they would make changes were asked how many dollars of additional profit they expected to gain from these changes and how many head they managed, the total producer-estimated impact for the US beef industry was over $500,000. Additionally, the conference proceedings are already posted for worldwide distribution and included proceedings papers from general session speakers, technical breakout presenters, and the Frank Baker Memorial Scholarship winners.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Conference Proceedings:
http://beefimprovement.org/content/uploads/2013/07/BIF-Proceedings.pdf
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Presentation Archive (on external site):
http://www.bifconference.com/bif2013/newsroom.html
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