ANSC

Faculty from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences are teaming up with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) on groundbreaking projects to tackle climate change and drive the future of the bioeconomy.  

The three selected projects from a competitive open call for proposals are: 

Elected to a one-year term in the office of vice president for the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA), Jim Drackley, emeritus professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, has been chosen to advance the ADSA’s mission to sustain and grow the global dairy industry.

Through a partnership among the College of ACES, the Illinois Department of Agriculture, and Feeding Illinois, student-raised livestock from the Illinois State Fair Sale of Champions is being transformed into meaningful support for local food banks — helping nourish neighbors and fight food insecurity.

When piglets don’t get enough milk in the first weeks of life, the chances of them thriving dramatically decline. In the U.S. pork production system, piglets with limited access to their mothers’ milk are typically “cross-fostered” with other sows. But in the E.U., a different solution is gaining ground. In certain circumstances, underfed piglets are artificially reared with milk replacer, mimicking feeding setups used in biomedical research.

Each year, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign honors high-achieving seniors who demonstrate leadership, academic excellence, and a commitment to the ACES mission. This year, the Hugh P. Morrison Award and Warren K. Wessels Award went to seniors Abbey Steele and Carrie Gill, respectively. 

Hugh P. Morrison Award 

Two ACES faculty members have been named 2024 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society. Animal sciences professors Isaac Cann and Matthew Wheeler are among the 471 scientists, engineers, and innovators chosen by their peers for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. 

The success of in vitro fertilization depends on many factors, one of which is sperm viability. A recent study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign documents a new way to select viable sperm and prolong their viability in the laboratory, reducing one source of variability during the process. 

Livestock agriculture is bearing the cost of extreme weather events. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores how heat stress affects U.S. dairy production, finding that high heat and humidity lead to a 1% decline in annual milk yield. Small farms are hit harder than large farms, which may be able to mitigate some of the effects through management strategies.

High-achieving students with an interest in food animal veterinary sciences will now have an expedited pathway for admission at the College of Veterinary Medicine (Vet Med) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.