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Submitted to: John M. Airy Beef Cattle Symposium: Visions for Genetics and Breeding
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/2003 Publication Date: 6/20/2004 Citation: Kappes, S.M. 2004. Challenges of beef cattle genetics research. In: Proceedings of the John M. Airy Beef Cattle Symposium: Visions for Genetics and Breeding, May 15-17, 2003, Iowa State University, Ames. AgBiotechNet Proceedings 004 Paper 7, pp 1-3. Available: http://www.agbiotechnet.com/proceedings/June2004/airybeef.asp Interpretive Summary: The current environment of the animal agriculture industry and animal agriculture research is changing and there are many challenges. The cattle research community will need to work collaboratively across public and privately funded institutions. It will be advantageous to communicate an organized plan to obtain funding for large, multi-institutional research projects. We will need to build multi-disciplinary research teams to fully utilize all the information to develop solutions for the industry. Training future research scientists will require that they have a broad understanding in traditional quantitative genetics research and molecular genetics and bioinformatics. The geneticist of tomorrow will need to communicate very well with biologists from the animal sciences to the biomedical sciences and understand the nomenclature of the many different fields. The demand for modeling biological systems will greatly increase, and geneticists will be needed to develop these models. Given the current economic situation with almost all universities, it may become more difficult to broadly train the scientists of tomorrow so universities may need to look at more long distance learning opportunities. The geneticist of tomorrow will be required to communicate research results to the cattle producer and agribusinesses that are trying to market the information and new technologies. Despite the many challenges for tomorrow's scientists, there are also unprecedented opportunities, and these opportunities should stimulate many creative energies and provide for very rewarding careers in animal agriculture. Technical Abstract: The current environment of the animal agriculture industry and animal agriculture research is changing and there are many challenges. The cattle research community will need to work collaboratively across public and privately funded institutions. It will be advantageous to communicate an organized plan to obtain funding for large, multi-institutional research projects. We will need to build multi-disciplinary research teams to fully utilize all the information to develop solutions for the industry. Training future research scientists will require that they have a broad understanding in traditional quantitative genetics research and molecular genetics and bioinformatics. The geneticist of tomorrow will need to communicate very well with biologists from the animal sciences to the biomedical sciences and understand the nomenclature of the many different fields. The demand for modeling biological systems will greatly increase, and geneticists will be needed to develop these models. Given the current economic situation with almost all universities, it may become more difficult to broadly train the scientists of tomorrow so universities may need to look at more long distance learning opportunities. The geneticist of tomorrow will be required to communicate research results to the cattle producer and agribusinesses that are trying to market the information and new technologies. Despite the many challenges for tomorrow's scientists, there are also unprecedented opportunities, and these opportunities should stimulate many creative energies and provide for very rewarding careers in animal agriculture. |
