Location: Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center
Project Number: 6020-21310-011-053-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2018
End Date: Aug 31, 2023
Objective:
To gain an understanding of livestock responses to stress and changes in environment, such as tall fescue toxicosis, drought, disease, and develop and use tools focused on the issues of small farmers with a focus on issues that impact animal health and farm production efficiency.
Approach:
Cooperative research has lead to improved strategies to reduce stress and disease in livestock. However, novel approaches are needed to further optimize and quantify production efficiency of small farms. Determining underlying physiological and molecular mechanisms to stress can help develop means to mitigate stressors such as fescue toxicosis, parasite infection, heat stress, potentially using natural compounds or interventions for grazing ruminant livestock. University partners will assess the economic impact of new methods thereby providing small producers with tools to determine the feasibility of incorporating research findings into production practices. Both undergraduates and graduate students will work with both parties to achieve project goals.
