Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

NCDC226 was created as an NCDC-Proposal for the NC region. Unfortunately, the proposal prepared for the USDA was not funded and the committee is terminating. In the interest of confidentiality, we have only requested an abstract from the competitive proposal to serve as their termination report, as approved by the NCRA office: Climate is a global concern in agriculture. Last summer was the hottest in 75 years (US National Climatic Data Center), with daily news stories regarding losses of livestock and productivity, which during a normal year equals $897, $369, and $299 million for dairy, beef, and swine industries, respectively. Australia is equally oppressed with heat stress and drought. Of equal concern is decreasing student interest in science, when the future needs qualified scientists addressing complex climate problems. Our goal is to establish a virtual resource for animal/environment interaction with a tailored smart phone app to address both issues. The central hypothesis is that guided use of this expanding technology will reduce current and future livestock heat stress, and be a platform to stimulate student interest in science. We are basically moving science to practice through technology transfer. These issues can only be resolved with our international team of professionals, using this approach to integrate research, extension, and education. Our objectives include: 1) Develop a heat stress management app that streams in weather data, with user input of animal information; 2) Create information modules pertaining to animal/ environment interaction for extension and education; and 3) Improve livestock welfare and student interest in science. The outcome of this work is an important first step in creating a virtual resource connecting professionals with producers, specialists, educators, and students to improve livestock welfare and productivity in the face of increasing climate extremes, and stimulate interest in life sciences relative to animal/environment interaction.