LREC report highlights ag research and Extension activities
The University of Wyoming’s (UW) Laramie Research and Extension Center (LREC) recently released its 2023 Annual Report, outlining research and Extension activities throughout the past year.
In a Sept. 23 UW Ag News article written by UW Extension Editor Brooke Ortel, Derek Scasta, LREC associate director and UW Extension rangeland management specialist, explains the purpose of the report is to share the center’s contributions with Wyoming residents across the state, and unlike previous reports, the 2023 edition highlights student activities and community-focused programs in addition to LREC’s research.
“This report highlights a unique UW facility serving students, researchers, farmers and ranchers in Wyoming,” Scasta says.
LREC
According to the report, LREC spans just under 9,500 acres from west Laramie to the McGuire Ranch outside of Wheatland, including nearly 9,000 acres of rangeland and about 450 acres of irrigated hay meadow.
LREC raises beef cattle, sheep, swine and hay, with the majority of the center’s hay production occurring in west Laramie using flood irrigation from the Pioneer Canal and Lake Hattie Irrigation District.
LREC is also home to a 20,000-square-foot greenhouse facility used for specialized teaching and research, as well as the Hansen Livestock and Teaching Area, which hosts educational seminars and a wide variety of events.
Scasta and LREC Director Dr. Scott Lake lead operations at the research center, with the help of LREC Accountant Amy Newman, six unit managers and a team of hourly technicians and student workers.
Livestock reports
The LREC Beef Unit is managed by Ben Hollinger and includes a herd of both commercial and purebred cattle, consisting of 147 bred mature cows, 62 crossbred heifers, 68 yearling heifers, three Black Angus bulls, three Hereford bulls and two Red Angus bulls.
Hollinger notes the Beef Unit is currently trying to build a herd of two small subsets of purebred Herefords and Red Angus with a larger set of commercial crossbred red baldies.
“We are interested in Herefords and Red Angus for their performance at high altitudes and respective levels of susceptibility to brisket or high-altitude disease,” Hollinger says. “The goal is to produce quality crossbred cattle that will thrive at high altitudes.”
He explains UW’s advanced beef production class utilizes the Beef Unit for hands-on learning opportunities. The Beef Unit also helps with UW’s Annual High Altitude Bull Test and Sale every spring.
Kalli Koepke oversees the LREC Sheep Unit, which includes 350 head of mature Rambouillet ewes, 115 head of ewe lamb replacements, seven head of mature sires, four head of teasers, 70 head of feedlot lambs and 11 head of ram lambs.
Koepke notes the Sheep Unit finished the season with a 180 percent lambing rate, 15 percent death loss and 156 percent weaning rate.
In August 2023, Koepke and her team introduced four donkeys into the herd as guardian animals, and since their introduction, the unit hasn’t suffered a single loss from depredation.
“We have also embarked on a new inventory system in 2023 – the Shearwell System,” she mentions. “We have transferred over all of our inventory records to this device and have proceeded to use the system from lambing, weaning, general weights, maternal records and paternal records.”
Koepke further notes the Sheep Unit participates in programs across the state, including the Wyoming Wool Growers Association (WWGA) Ram Test and Sale, UW’s Lamb-A-Year program, the Albany County 4-H Sheep Program, UW Extension Sheep Task Force, the 7220 National Wool Invitational, Wyoming 4-H and FFA wool judging contests and several animal science classes.
In the Swine Unit, Manager Patrick Parker is in charge of 15 breeding sows, five replacement gilts, three boars and 148 2023-born piglets.
All sows are artificially inseminated with purchased semen and the boars are maintained as teasers.
Parker notes the majority of production from LREC’s sows are used to support teaching efforts and the UW Meat Lab.
Judging teams at UW, across Wyoming and from surrounding states utilize the swine herd for practice and contests, and the Swine Unit provides feeder pigs for the 307 Elite Sale.
“There are very few swine herds open to the public, so we have a great opportunity to teach generations about the swine industry,” Parker says.
“The Swine Unit helps with many important Extension, research and teaching activities crucial to UW and the region, including the Wyoming State Fair, the National Western Stock Show, the Albany County 4-H Swine Program, the Showcase Showdown Livestock Judging Contest, the Fourth Grade Rendezvous, the Albany County CattleWomen’s Ag Expo and several animal science classes,” he concludes.
Equine Unit and arena report
Additionally, LREC’s Equine Unit is home to two Quarter Horse saddle horses; the four guardian burros used by the Sheep Unit, which were adopted through the Bureau of Land Management; Cowboy Joe, an American Shetland pony that makes an appearance at UW sporting events and other functions throughout the year and two Haflinger draft geldings known as Pistol and Pete.
The Equine Unit and the Hansen Livestock and Teaching Arena are overseen by Elias Hutchinson, who notes from 2022-23, the Hansen arena hosted 47 different individual events, including horse clinics; livestock judging and fitting clinics; agility dog competitions; an ag expo; high school, collegiate and ranch rodeos; archery shoots; bull sales and UW Extension seminars, just to name a few.
The equine remuda – excluding the burros – are used to help teach numerous animal science labs and classes throughout the school year.
“The Pistol and Pete draft team are arguably the busiest mascots at UW,” says Hutchinson. “In 2022-23, the team appeared at more than 16 different events on campus and around the state.”
“The team is also used to feed the sheep during the winter at LREC. They feed about one ton a day, five days a week from Dec. 1 to April 1, rain or shine and even in 30-below-zero weather,” he adds. “Unlike a tractor, they always start in the cold.”
Research
The report concludes with a list of research studies conducted at LREC during 2023, including animal science; rangeland, pasture and natural resources and greenhouse research.
A few of the studies within the animal science units include research to understand the effects of choline supplementation on the reproductive performance of ewe lambs in the breeding and non-breeding seasons; sheep foraging behaviors and diet selection on northern mixed-grass prairie with a high abundance of larkspur; the influence of a stair-step nutritional management strategy on the ovarian development of developing heifers and characterizing feedlot performance and carcass characteristics of finishing cattle with high-altitude disease risk.
Rangeland, pasture and natural resources research taking place at LREC in 2023 looked at targeted disturbance for improved nitrogen mineralization and forage production in meadows; the proportional abundance of songbirds on grazed pasture and foraging behavior of cattle in an adaptive multi-paddock rotational grazing system, to name a few.
Additionally, 2023 LREC greenhouse research projects looked at the impact of weeds on the nutritive quality of the first cutting of alfalfa in Wyoming, biocontrol of Canada thistle, the development of local production capabilities for native bumblebees, restoring native plants for forest and rangeland resilience and the impacts of coal char and biochar on plant growth, among others.
Hannah Bugas is the managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
