July 15, 2008, Scottsbluff, Neb. –
Dr. Judson Vasconcelos has been appointed the feedlot nutrition and
management specialist at the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research
and Extension Center.
July 15, 2008, Scottsbluff, Neb. – Dr. Judson Vasconcelos has been appointed the feedlot nutrition and management specialist at the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center.
Dr. Vasconcelos will be responsible for conducting extension and research programs focused on efficiency, profitability, food safety and environmental aspects of feedlot cattle production in the central High Plains. He also will be faculty supervisor for the newly expanded Panhandle Research Feedlot at Scottsbluff, responsible for developing, funding and conducting research trials.
Dr. Vasconcelos, a Brazil native, received a degree in veterinary medicine in 1998 and spent several years working for an American nutrition company based in Brazil. Industry connections steered him to Texas, where he received a master’s degree from West Texas A&M in 2004 and a doctorate from Texas A&M University in 2006. Both advanced degrees were in beef cattle nutrition with an emphasis in feedlot nutrition.
At the Panhandle Center, Dr. Vasconcelos says his immediate goals are to network with consulting nutritionists to learn about research needs, then to align those needs to the capacities at the Panhandle Research Feedlot. He is interested in applied research – that can be used in the real world. He said he is eager to visit with cattle feeders in the area, who can contact him at his office phone, 308-632-1397. Among the projects planned will be trials on distillers grains, one of the products of ethanol plants.
The Panhandle Research Feedlot provides excellent capacities for research, Dr. Vasconcelos said. The number of pens, and the capacity of each pen, gives it the ability to conduct research that few other feedlots are able. And the ability to measure the water delivered to individual pens will be useful. One of his goals is to test the use of state-of-the art software to control everyday feed bunk management.
