Graduate Program – Animal Behavior & Welfare

The Livestock Behavior and Welfare group at Colorado State University performs research in a variety of topic areas with primary focus on food animal behavior and welfare. We look to make practical improvements in live animal and slaughter systems to help improve animal welfare in addition to enhancing process efficiency and meat quality where applicable. The most recent projects pursued within the Livestock Behavior and Welfare group have focused on:

• Leg conformation problems in feedlot cattle
• Assessment of handling practices at U.S. feedlots
• Examination of captive bolt stunner length on brain damage and post-mortem kicking in cattle
• Observations of pen stocking capacities for overnight lairage of fed cattle at harvest facility
• Factors impacting bruising in cattle
• Survey of cow-calf producers to understand management techniques impacting animal welfare

As a graduate student there is opportunity to collaborate with other disciplines within the department to gain a breadth of research experience. Students admitted to this graduate program often take an active part in choosing and designing their research projects.

There are several existing and new courses within the Animal Science department and Veterinary Medicine with specific focus on animal behavior and welfare, ANEQ 300A Livestock Handling, ANEQ 366 Introduction to Animal Welfare Assessment – target offering Spring 2018, ANEQ 410 Applied Farm Animal Behavior – target offering Fall 2018. Additionally, degree coursework within this program would include courses in other departments including but not limited from psychology, health and exercise science, philosophy, biology, biomedical sciences, and statistics.

Participation in the Animal Welfare Judging Team is also an opportunity available to all graduate programs but most participated in by the Livestock Behavior and Welfare group. Traditionally, one of the graduate students serves as the coach for the team and others are members participating in the Annual Intercollegiate Animal Welfare Judging/Assessment Contest, http://www.awjac.org/, in which the CSU team has been a past champion!

Contact Information
Temple Grandin, Ph.D. – Professor
Email Address: cheryl.miller@colostate.edu | Phone Number: (970) 229-0703 |
Website: www.grandin.com

Dr. Lily Edwards-Callaway, Assistant Professor
lily.edwards-callaway@colostate.edu
(970) 491-5875 (office)