December 13-15, 2006  Drs.  Mark Allan, Cal Ferrell, Tom Jenkins, and Charles Williams participated in a Feed Efficiency Symposium sponsored by the National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium in Kansas City, Missouri  Dr. Williams presented a talk on "Use of predicted feed intake in beef sire genetic evaluation”

September 4-6, 2006, Dr. Cal Ferrell traveled to Langston University, Langston, Oklahoma to assist colleagues at the E (Kika) de la Garza American Institute for Goat Research in surgical preparation of goats.

July 9 - 13, 2006, Drs. Cal Ferrell, Mark Allan and Harvey Freetly attended the National Meeting of the American Society of Animal Science held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Dr. Ferrell received an award "In Recognition of Original Research in Animal Growth and Development".

April 10-12, 2006, Drs. Cal Ferrell and Tom Jenkins participated in a National Stakeholders workshop for National Program 101,  Animal Production and Well Being to assess ARS performance against the previously stated action plan, and to initiate development of action plan for the 2007-2012 national program.

February 10-11, 2006, Dr. Cal Ferrell attended the state convention of the North Carolina Cattlemen’s Association and presented a talk on "Beef Cattle Production Efficiency".

Dr. Charles Williams wrote a paper describing a computer model for predicting the protein content of fat-free matter gains in cattle. This paper was published electronically in Feedinfo News Service (www.feedinfo.com). Feedinfo News Service is an information provider for the global meat & livestock industries. Feedinfo News Service Scientific Reviews. September 2005.  Available at:  http://www.feedinfo.com.

Dr. Cal Ferrell serves on a committee of the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources (BANR), National Academy of Sciences, whose charge is to evaluate whether the business plan of BANR and National Academy Press for continued publication of the Nutrient Requirements series is viable and to make recommendations for enhancing its probability of success.

On September 9, 2005, Dr. Cal Ferrell presented a seminar an Applying Genomics to Improve Feed Efficiency of Cattle to students and faculty at North Dakota State University.

On July 24, 2005, Drs. Shawn Archibeque, Charles Williams, and Jim Wells attended the 2005 Annual American Society of Animal Science in Cincinnati, Ohio and presented the abstracts Total splanchnic flux of nutrients in wethers fed oscillating crude protein diets,   Using simulation models to predict feed intake:  Phenotypic and genetic relationships between observed and predicted values, and Viability of Salmonella enterica Typhimurium and Escherichia coli O157:H7 in finishing swine manure slurries with and without a urease inhibitor and a plant essential oil.  Available at:  http://www.fass.org/2005/abstracts/toc.htm

On July 18, 2005, Dr. Cal Ferrell gave a presentation on QTL for Feed Efficiency to Gert Nieuwahof, Senior Geneticist Meat and Livestock Commission, UK and Chris Warkup, Director of Genesis Faraday Partnership UK.

On July 6, 2005, Dr. Cal Ferrell gave a presentation on Cow Efficiency to Mr. Bob Kimm (retired from Black Hawk Community College) and 40 cattlemen from central and southwest Iowa.

A Patent (#6,902,726) entitled “Reduction of odor gases from waste using plant-derived oils” was issued on June 7, 2005 to Dr. Vince Varel for research conducted under NP 206, Waste Management and Byproduct Utilization.

On June 17, 2005, Drs. Cal Ferrell, Harvey Freetly, Tom Jenkins, and Mark Thallman visited with Stuart Bauck, Leader of Merial's DNA Testing Business about the Feed Efficiency study at MARC.

On May 17, 2005, MARC hosted a meeting of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Livestock Environmental Issues Committee, who toured MARC and heard presentations on livestock waste management research at MARC.

On May 16-20, 2005, Drs. Jim Wells and Vince Varel met with nutritionists (Drs. A. Goetsch, R. Puchala, and G. Animut) from Langston University, E (Kika) de la Garza Institute for Goat Research to discuss tannins in animal diets and train the visiting scientist in anaerobic microbial techniques.

On May 10, 2005, scientists in the Nutrition Research Unit met with researchers from K-State Research and Extension and the Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment.  This group toured MARC and heard presentations on livestock waste management research at MARC. 

On April 11, 2005, Drs. Vince Varel and Jim Wells attended the 2005 Conference on Gastrointestinal Function in Chicago, Illinois and presented the abstracts “Plant oils and urease inhibitors as solutions for environmental issues associated with confined animal feeding operations” and “The effects of larch extract on performance and fecal flora in nursery pigs.”

On March 31, 2005 Dr. Vince Varel gave a presentation “Combination of a urease inhibitor and a plant essential oil for control of coliforms and emissions of odor and ammonia from cattle waste” to Buckeye Technologies, Inc. at Memphis, Tennessee.  This presentation was to present the results to the use of NBPT with thymol and other chemicals for controlling volatile organic compounds and other gaseous emissions from agricultural biomass.

On March 21, 2005, Drs. Shawn Archibeque, Harvey Freetly, and John Klindt attended the 2005 Midwest Section of the American Society of Animal Science in Des Moines, Iowa and presented the abstracts “Metabolite fluxes across splanchnic tissues in response to varying dietary protein in mature ewes consuming low quality forage,” and “Moderately altering weight gain patterns of second parity cows through nutrition changes the time that feed resources are offered without any differences in production.”  Available at:  http://www.asas.org/abstracts/2005sectional/2005midwest.pdf.

On March 17, 2005, Dr. Elaine Berry discussed “Demonstrating Effectiveness of Vegetative Treatment Systems for Small Beef Cattle Feedlots” at the 22^nd Annual Water and the Future of Kansas Conference, Topeka, Kansas.

On February 7, 2005, Dr. Cal Ferrell attended the Southern Section of the American Society of Animal Science in Little Rock, Arkansas and presented the abstracts “Maternal and fetal genotype influences on fetal growth” and “Feed utilization and performance of tropically adapted cattle.”  Available at:  http://www.asas.org/abstracts/2005sectional/2005southern.pdf.

On January 5-7, 2005, Drs. Shawn Archibeque and Elaine Berry attended the Symposium on the State of the Science of Animal Manure and Waste Management at San Antonio, Texas.  Dr. Berry presented “Occurrence and Fate of Bacterial Pathogens in a Passive Beef Feedlot Runoff Control-Vegetative Treatment System”  (http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/waste_mgt/natlcenter/sanantonio/Berry.pdf).  Dr. Archibeque presented “Feeding High Moisture Corn Instead of Dry Rolled Corn Reduces Odor Production in Finishing Beef Cattle Manure Without Sacrificing Performance” (http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/waste_mgt/natlcenter/sanantonio/Archibeque.pdf).  Dr. Archibeque’s and colleagues’ research has received national and international coverage on several popular press releases, including Beef Magazine, Feedstuffs, KRVN Rural Radio, The Baltimore Sun, and a live radio interview by Dr. Dan Miller, with the BBC.