URBANA, Ill. – Research in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois spans multiple disciplines, from production agriculture to neuroscience. This breadth of expertise is one reason several researchers in the department were recently awarded a $1.62 million, five-year research grant from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Dual Purpose for Dual Benefit” program.

When deciding which sweet corn hybrids to plant, vegetable processors need to consider whether they want their contract growers using a workhorse or a racehorse. Is it better to choose a hybrid with exceptional yields under ideal growing conditions (i.e., the racehorse) or one that performs consistently well across ideal and less-than-ideal conditions (i.e., the workhorse)? New research from the University of Illinois suggests the workhorse is the winner in processing sweet corn.

Handling a poorly timed tantrum from a toddler-such as in the middle of the grocery store-is never an easy task. It could serve as a teachable moment for a mom to help her child learn to manage his own emotions. After all, research shows that how parents react in these types of situations can play an important role in a child's emotional development.

But how does that child's negative behavior-that tantrum in the frozen food aisle-affect a mother's own stress level, and therefore, her ability to parent?

As a PhD student in Agricultural and Consumer Economics advised by Dr. Kathy Baylis, Patrese Anderson is working with a multidisciplinary research team to understand climate change’s effects on smallholder farmers dependent on rain fed agricultural systems.

During the summer of 2017, she used funds provided by the ACES International Graduate Grants program to travel to Zambia to oversee the data collection of 1200 household surveys to be used by this research team to help Zambia ensure livelihoods and attain food security.  

Dennis Humberto Pinto Padilla, a M.S. student in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition advised by Dr. Nicki Engeseth, used funds from an ACES international graduate grant to find optimal conditions for producing chocolate in tropical regions.

Pinto’s research focuses on a problem that plagues tropical regions with chocolate – the temperature of storage is often too high, resulting in rapid bloom formation and melting. His goal is to find low-cost, low energy-requiring strategies for temperature stability and therefore better chocolate production in these regions.

Name: Tomas Tebarek
Major: Finance in Agribusiness
Scholarship: Jonathan M. and Judith D. Groesbeck Scholarship in Honor of Harold E. Dustin
Hometown: Wheaton, Ill.

How did you make the decision to attend the College of ACES and major in your chosen field?

The Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics Student Advising and Enrichment Center (SAEC) distinguishes ACE as a leader in student service. The center emphasizes four core principles: experiential learning, personalized advising, professional development, and career exploration.

Private gifts, including the Tom Frey Fund, have provided funding essential to making student services and programs available and financially accessible.

The following are a sampling of the opportunities made possible by the ACE Student Advising and Enrichment Center.

Construction on the Food Science and Human Nutrition Pilot Processing Plant (FSHN-PPP), which began in May 2016, was completed earlier this spring. Although primary construction is complete, gifts to defray the cost of the construction are still needed.

The facility has undergone a $3-million transformation, with new HVAC, utility, and electrical systems; improved food safety considerations; and the addition of a product development kitchen, food analysis lab, conference space, and more.

• Dairy cattle diets are often deficient in the essential amino acid methionine; supplements have been shown to increase milk production and protein concentration.
• A new study shows that rumen-protected methionine supplements can change gene expression in the ovarian follicle, potentially leading to shorter time between ovulation events.
• Methionine supplements also decrease expression of genes related to inflammation in the cells of the ovarian follicle.

URBANA, Ill.

• Rumen-protected methionine (RPM) added to the diet of Holstein cows improves the survival rate of preimplantation embryos.
• Cows fed methionine have more lipid droplets inside the preimplantation embryo, which could be used as energy by the embryos.
• Embryonic death has been shown to drop from 19 percent to 6 percent in cows fed methionine.

URBANA, Ill - Research at the University of Illinois has shown that adding methionine to the diets of Holstein cows during the prepartum and postpartum periods may impact the preimplantation embryo in a way that en