Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The NANP Coordinating Committee, Feed Composition Committee and Modeling Committee conduct regular (typically monthly) virtual meetings and calls to discuss and plan activities being conducted in support of NRSP9 goals. Coordinating Committee meetings focused on providing overall oversight to the project and serving as the primary liaison with the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) in support of efforts to update animal species nutrient utilization reports. The Coordinating Committee (CC) revisited the membership and leadership of the Modeling and Nutrient Utilization Committees as well as devised a plan for accomplishing project activities in light of continued challenges in finding postdoctoral associates to support the project. Planning to track impacts and metrics to contribute to the mid-term report, as well as exploring options for alternatives to off-the-top Multistate funding were ongoing discussions throughout the year. The CC also began planning for the next NANP Summit to be held Fall 2022.

The Feed Composition Committee met regularly via phone conference throughout the year to discuss the continued development and improvement of the feed composition database.  In addition to the continued improvements of the feed composition database resources, the chair of this committee also provided leadership in implementing components of the marketing and communication activities directed by the CC as well as the development of educational resources for supporting animal nutrition instruction for postsecondary and continuing education audiences.

The Modeling Committee also held regular conference calls throughout the year to discuss a wide range of issues related to expanding modeling tools available and improving usage across the research community. Major activities included continued exploration of translating NASEM models to a common modeling platform and organizing modeling workshops for students, researchers and other stakeholders.

Overall, the activities of the NANP represent a time commitment of approximately 500 faculty hours and 2000 graduate student hours. This effort represents a significant leverage of the off the top Multistate funding provided to NANP through the Agricultural Experiment Stations.

Complete minutes from all Coordinating Committee meetings held this year are attached.

Major accomplishments of the Coordinating, Modeling and Feed Composition Committees include:

• Recruited new members of all three committees. New members replacing those who phase out of participation following their terms are critical to bringing in new perspectives and knowledge to the project. Members were selected to ensure that committee composition reflected a diversity of animal species expertise, representation from all four regions and inclusion of 1890 Land-Grants and Industry.
• The CC explored avenues for revenue generation to provide on-going support for NANP. Moved forward on establishing 501(c)3 status for NANP and identified services for which fees might be collected.
• A working group was established to develop a standardized zebrafish experimental diet. Work has begun to devise and test formulations.
• Two nutrition modeling workshops were held in conjunction with national scientific meetings to help convey the concepts needed and approaches available for developing, parameterizing and evaluating nutrient models needed for animal research. The workshop held during the American Dairy Science Association had 25 participants and abstracts of presentations can be found in the Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 104 Supplement 1, pages 341-343. The workshop held at the American Society of Animal Science meeting had 90 participants and links to presentations can be found on the NANP website at https://animalnutrition.org/workshops-symposia.  
• The CC initiated discussion with Look East, a PR and communications consultant for the food and agriculture industry, which led to the development of a 3-year social media plan for NANP.
• A comprehensive style guide for NANP was developed. This covers all branding related to the project, including logo usage, color scheme, font choice, tone in language, best practices with images and videos, etc. Stylized video ‘bumpers’ for NANP video assets and a best-practice protocol for developing video-based educational resources were also developed to accompany other communication resources like the style guide and Powerpoint templates.
• Six new educational primers were developed by the Feed Composition committee and made available through the NANP website. Documents released in 2021 cover understanding percentages, dry matter vs. as-fed concepts in animal nutrition, parts per million & parts per billion, the concept of energy in animal nutrition research, feed intake and units of measure and conversions common to animal nutrition research.
• Created an NANP Glossary, which consolidates terminology from both the modeling and feed comp databases, including all nutrient/analytical names from the composition tables.
• Launched newly-styled modeling and feed composition databases, which are now truly integrated into the NANP website with new design features and easier data management and display.
• Developed a plan for incorporating the beef and dairy feed composition datasets into the consolidated NANP database, with implementation to be completed in 2022

Peer-reviewed papers:

• Tedeschi, Luis O., et al. "ASAS-NANP SYMPOSIUM: Mathematical modeling in animal nutrition: training the future generation in data and predictive analytics for sustainable development. A Summary." Journal of Animal Science2 (2021): skab023.
• Stephens, Emma C. "ASAS-NANP SYMPOSIUM: Review of systems thinking concepts and their potential value in animal science research." Journal of Animal Science2 (2021): skab021.
• Gerrits, Walter JJ, et al. "ASAS-NANP symposium: digestion kinetics in pigs: the next step in feed evaluation and a ready-to-use modeling exercise." Journal of animal science2 (2021): skab020.
• Morota, Gota, et al. "ASAS-NANP SYMPOSIUM: prospects for interactive and dynamic graphics in the era of data-rich animal science." Journal of animal science2 (2021): skaa402.
• Wang, Zhuoyi, et al. "ASAS-NANP SYMPOSIUM: Applications of machine learning for livestock body weight prediction from digital images." Journal of Animal Science2 (2021): skab022.
• Hanigan, Mark D., and Veridiana L. Daley. "Use of mechanistic nutrition models to identify sustainable food animal production." Annual Review of Animal Biosciences8 (2020): 355-376.
• Daley, V. L., et al. "Modeling fatty acids for dairy cattle: Models to predict total fatty acid concentration and fatty acid digestion of feedstuffs." Journal of Dairy Science8 (2020): 6982-6999.
• Hanigan, M. D., et al. "Predicting ruminally undegraded and microbial protein flows from the rumen." Journal of Dairy Science8 (2021): 8685-8707.
• Li, Meng M., and Mark D. Hanigan. "A revised representation of ruminal pH and digestive reparameterization of the Molly cow model." Journal of Dairy Science12 (2020): 11285-11299.
• Lawrence, Laurie. "The nutrient requirements of horses: historical perspectives." Translational Animal Science1 (2022): txac021.
• Robertson, Isaiah, et al. "Nitrogen Management Criteria System (NMCS)." https://infews-er.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Dairy-Nitrogen-Cohort-Final-Report-final.pdf

Abstracts

• Menendez, Hector M., Benjamin L. Turner, and Luis O. Tedeschi. "144 A modeling framework to assess the impact of the texas beef cattle water footprint on livestock sustainability." Journal of Animal ScienceSupplement_3 (2019): 147-147.
• Daley, V. L., and M. D. Hanigan. "Prediction of total milk fat of dairy cows: a multi-model approach." EAAP Scientific Series. Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2019. 409-411.