The Animal Breeding and Genetics group is involved in research, teaching, and outreach activities. The group currently includes two fulltime faculty, four adjunct faculty, two fulltime research associates, and eight graduate students. While the group is involved primarily with the beef cattle industry, other activities address issues in the equine, deer, and sheep industries. A few of the groups' activities include:

• Development of the concept of economically relevant traits and methods for the genetic evaluation of those traits (including new trait development, such as Maintenance Requirement EPD and Days to Finish EPD).
• Development of methods for incorporation of costs and incomes of production into decision support tools to help producers make economically sound selection decisions
• Development of better methods for genetic evaluation of fertility traits.

The group maintains a central computing facility and network, located within the Department of Animal Sciences, that serves faculty, graduate students, and the CSU Center for the Genetic Evaluation of Livestock (CGEL). The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art computer hardware systems and a full technical staff. The CGEL performs genetic evaluations and research for 16 beef cattle breed associations and producer groups. As part of the National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium, the group works together with geneticists at Cornell University and the University of Georgia to improve methods for genetic evaluation more quickly and in a more efficient manner.

The program has access to several beef cattle breeding and genetics research and demonstration herds. One of these, the John E. Rouse CSU Beef Improvement Center, is located near Saratoga, Wyoming and was donated in 1986 to CSU by the Rouse family. This ranch consists of 450 Angus cows bred to produce cattle with high calving ease, rapid early growth, high fertility, and high altitude adaptability. This herd has been used extensively for studying the genetics of reproduction and for development of new strategies for estrous synchronization and artificial insemination.

The CSU Beef Improvement Center is a part of the CSU Beef Alliance, an integrated beef production system that includes the CSU teaching cow herds located at ARDEC, the Eastern Colorado Research Center commercial cow herd, and the CSU Feedlot. The Alliance is designed to maximize use of the CSU beef cow herds and facilities to mimic the U.S. beef industry. The alliance provides CSU researchers with the ability to evaluate the impact of management and genetic changes at ranch level on all sectors of the industry, in terms of both animal and economic performance.

Faculty & Staff

    Faculty and staff with graduate student Devori Beckman (center) 

Mark Enns, Ph.D
970.491.2722
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Assisant Professor, Department of Animal Sciences, Animal Breeding

Scott Speidel
970.491.5419
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Research Associate

Brian Brigham
970.491.5419
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Research Associate

Courses Offered

(S) - offered in the Spring
(F) - offered in the Fall