Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Overview
The meeting was held virtually, and Michael Looper (Chair of SAC-2) started the meeting with individual introductions from participants.

Administrative Advisor, Dr. Hongwei Xin provided updates and comments relative to the group and valuable to all members involved. He also agreed with Dr. Michael Looper that the participants list on the SAC-2 website should be updated to reflect the current membership. Dr. Xin asked the group to continue encouraging faculty to participate in true multistate collaboration. The ASRED/SAAESD joint meeting will be held on March 25-28, 2024 in Lexington, KY. The joint session will include two panel presentations and discussion: 1) Food Waste/Loss Reduction, and 2) PLF Technologies and Field Applications. The 3rd U.S. Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) Conference will be held at University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 2025.

USDA-NIFA representative, Dr. Robert Godfrey provided updates and comments relative to the group and valuable to all members involved. Specifically, that NIFA was still waiting on final appropriations before any funds could be released.
Scott Radcliffe was unanimously elected as the incoming Secretary for the upcoming year replacing Francis Fluharty who will serve as chair for 2025.
Michael Looper, Chair of SAC-2, guided the group through a review of each of the Southern

S-1074
Future Challenges in Animal Production Systems: Seeking Solutions Through Focused Facilitation
Monitor: Todd Applegate
Administrative Advisor: Wendy Powers
No one was in attendance and no report was submitted prior to the meeting. Dr. Michael Looper will investigate and send information to the group. As such, no motion was made and vote was taken on the continuation of the project.

S-1076
Fly Management in Animal Agriculture Systems & Impacts on Animal Health and Food Safety
Monitor: Charlie Rosenkrans
Administrative Advisor: David White
Dr. Charles Rosenkras submitted the report via email, following the meeting.
General: Project S1076 concluded their fifth year with a meeting in January 2023, and new project group had their first meeting January 10-12, 2024 in Las Cruces NM, and via Zoom. Their report can be found at: https://nimss.org/storage/4130/S1076-2024-minutes.pdf .
Activities: The NIMSS site only contains “Basic Information” at this time; however, the current version of the project is just one year old, and their first meeting was just a few weeks ago. That meeting was well attended with 19 in person and 34 online participants. The project committee is commended for embracing a wide range of participants including research scientists from academia and USDA, Extension scientists, and industry partners and scientists. The group developed and continues to maintain an outstanding website hosted on wix (https://www.veterinaryentomology.org/s1076-project ). That website includes excellent information and is presented in a very logical and public-friendly manner. That site clearly demonstrates the project participants commitment: having been awarded the “Excellence in Multistate Research Award” for a previous version of the project. One of the expectations of a multistate project is that the project participants actually work together to solve the proposed questions and to develop educational materials as a team. Group S1076 has succeeded at both of those goals.
Suggestions: The group is very productive, but as suggested previously, they need to add materials to the NIMSS site. To their credit, in the meeting minutes, they plan to add funding, impact statements, outputs, and synergistic activities. In addition, the review committee would like to see the annual list of publications associated with each objective of the project. And finally, the wix website is outstanding, but for the ease of reviewers (department chairs/heads, upper administrators, USDA personnel, and legislative staff) we recommend that an active weblink to the wix site be prominently shown on theNIMSS site.
Recommendation: Overall, the review committee recommended continued funding and support of multistate project S1076.

S-1081
Nutritional Systems for Swine to Increase Reproductive Efficiency
Monitor: Dave Gerrard
Administrative Advisor: James Matthews
Dave Gerrard reported on S-1081. S-1081 met with NCCC42 on January 4-5 in a hybrid session, four members in the flesh, and three virtually. Three members listed in NIMSS did not attend. Drs Godfrey (USDA-NIFA), Moeller (USDA-ARS), Hostetler (Pork Board) Frank (AFIA) and Risley (IFEEDER) attended as guests. Administrative advisors Drs. Schuh (NCCC-42) and Matthews (S-1081) attended as well. Nine station reports ensued. NCCC42 submitted a new proposal Dec 23 and it was discussed. The two groups broke out and discussed research projects that morning. The afternoon was a joint venture filled with discussion of additional topic to study. As in the past, the speakers and discussions were fairly extensive. Next year’s meeting will be held in Nashville, again around the first of the year.
Dave Gerrard made motion to recommend approval to continue project
Neal Schrick seconded motion
Michael Looper called for vote of members
Motion passed unanimously

SCC-81
Sustainable Small Ruminant Production in the Southeastern US
Monitor: Todd See
Administrative Advisor: Ralph Noble
There was no response from Dr. Ralph Noble or Dr. Noble’s replacement. It was mentioned that the group met during the ASAS Southern Section meeting which was held in Louisville, Kentucky in January 2024. Dr. John Arthington was going to speak to a colleague, Radiah Minor (rcminor@ncat.edu), that is a member of this group for a more in-depth update. Dr. Todd See volunteered to become the monitor of the group moving forward. All unanimously agreed to accept his offer.
Information from SCC-881 Report: SCC 81 met during the Southern Section ASAS meeting in NIMSS site.
eight participants. They are working towards and reported progress on all five of their objectives.
Objectives:
1.Utilization of gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) control methods including feedingDuddingtonia flagrans, forage/grazing management, and animal selection for GINresistance.
2.Emphasis of forage feeding systems for year-round grazing to meet nutritionalrequirements that mitigate drought and other plant and animal stressors.
3.Strategies for the improvement of small ruminant reproduction.
4.Disseminate research results and information to stakeholders.
5.Identify producers’ challenges and opportunities in marketing goats and goat products.
This year's draft report includes 10 peer review journal articles, 24 abstracts and proceedings and 6 popular press articles. They also worked on planning a symposium to be held with their annual meeting at next year's Southern Section ASAS meeting focused on "Taking us to the future: Lessons learned across species." The symposium will have a genetics focus with speakers that have sheep and cattle experience discussing tools and technology that could be better utilized across species. Richard Browning (Tennessee State) is the new Chair and Diwakar Vyas (University of Florida) is the new secretary.
Todd See made motion to recommend approval to continue project (via email)
Richard Coffey seconded motion
Michael Looper called for vote of members
Motion passed unanimously

S-1096 (SCC-84)
Selection and mating strategies to improve dairy cattle performance, efficiency, and longevity
Monitor: John Arthington
Administrative Advisor: Neal Schrick
Project members had begun working on a re-write in September/October. The re-write was scheduled to be submitted by March 15 for approval. The re-write objectives include: Recommend breeding strategies for optimal use of breed resources, maintenance It was stated that a new monitor was needed and Neal Schrick volunteered. The group unanimously agreed to accept the offer.

SERA-41

Improving Production Efficiency of the Beef Cow Herd in Southern Forage-Based Systems

Monitor: Neil Schrick
Administrative Advisor: Cliff Lamb, Mark McCann
Project members met in January 2024 at the ASAS Southern Section meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. (Attendance was low, perhaps because the project meeting was held at the same time as student presentations.) The planned re-write will occur during the Fall of 2024 and the members are working to bring in additional researchers.
Neil Schrick made motion to recommend approval to continue project
David Gerrard seconded motion
Michael Looper called for vote of members
Motion passed unanimously

S-1086
Enhancing Sustainability of Beef Cattle Production in the Southern and Central US through Genetic Improvement
Monitor: Mike Looper
Administrative Advisor: James Matthews
Project members met in Fayetteville in May 2023 with 17 attendees from five different universities. (It was mentioned that it appears that Mississippi State, University of Arkansas and Texas A&M appear to be the most active participants based on attendance.) During the meeting, members agreed this is a re-write year; voted on new project officers and set the 2024 meeting date.

They discussed the need for an upcoming renewal, since the project is currently in year 4 of 5 of the project life cycle. Members were then selected on a volunteer basis for the Nominating Committee (Dr. Rhonda Vann, Dr. Trent Smith, and Dr. Andy Herring) and the Resolutions Committee (Dr. David Riley and Dr. Bryan Kutz). Dr. Powell then gave a presentation to further elaborate on plans for the renewal. Proposed objectives were drafted by the group and will be shared by email with members. A summary of the discussion for the next projects objectives includes:
Recommend breeding strategies for optimal use of breed resources, maintenance
and(or) exploitation of within-breed (additive and non-additive) genetic variation.
Deriving novel traits based on longitudinal datasets from precision livestock farming to
improve sustainability, welfare, and resilience.
Develop variant discovery strategies to incorporate functional –omics data into breeding
schemes to improve genetic variation of dairy and optimize economic merit indices.
Create a pipeline of diverse graduate students in the fields of quantitative and
functional genetics and bioinformatics via outreach and educational opportunities.
Proposed Title: Characterizing adaptation of cattle to their production environment
Proposed Objective Areas:
•Adaptation to local production and environmental challenges
oHeat stress and sweat glands
oWater intake
oGenetic resistance to parasites
oTeeth and longevity
oForage/animal interaction
•Heterosis: Brahman and Angus•Systems approach to analyzing novel ERTs associated with production includinglongevity, fertility and meat quality database creation.
oBirth weight
oHeifer development
oSire
oTemperament
oCarcass ultrasonography
oFertility
oParasite loads
Mike Looper made motion to recommend approval to continue project
John Arthington seconded motion
Michael Looper called for vote of members
Motion passed unanimously

S-1093
Management Systems for beef cattle Reared in Subtropical and Tropical Environments
Monitor: John Arthington They discussed the need for an upcoming renewal, since the project is currently in year 4 of 5 of the project life cycle. Members were then selected on a volunteer basis for the Nominating Committee (Dr. Rhonda Vann, Dr. Trent Smith, and Dr. Andy Herring) and the Resolutions Committee (Dr. David Riley and Dr. Bryan Kutz). Dr. Powell then gave a presentation to further elaborate on plans for the renewal. Proposed objectives were drafted by the group and will be shared by email with members. A summary of the discussion for the next projects objectives includes:

See Summary of minutes, attached.

See Summary of Minutes.

Refer to individual projects.