Dr. Joyce G. Foster

Dr. Foster received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Nutrition from Virginia Tech in 1979.  Her graduate research concerned environmental regulation of antioxidant enzymes in plant leaves.  She conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Washington State University, investigating carbon metabolism in C3, C4, and CAM plants with emphasis on compartmentalization and regulation of photosynthetic enzymes and the polypeptide composition of the chloroplast envelope.  She joined the USDA, ARS facility in Beaver, WV, in 1982.  Her early pursuits at the AFSRC addressed the forage potential of the perennial legume, flatpea (Lathyrus sylvestris L.).  Those investigations involved developing methods to extract and quantify natural products in the herbage, describing signs of flatpea toxicity in sheep, and identifying environmental factors that make flatpea unsafe as a forage for small ruminants. Her current research is focused on primary and secondary metabolites, including fatty acids, vitamin E, flavonoids, tannins, sesquiterpene lactones, coumarins, and alkaloids in herbaceous and woody plants and their impact on herbage palatability, ruminant nutrient-use efficiency, gastrointestinal parasite control, animal health and performance, and meat quality.  Emphasis is on development of meat goat finishing systems for Appalachian small farms.