Welcome to our new Livestock Extension Specialist!
April 29, 2021
The University of Arizona School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences would like to welcome Dr. Joslyn Beard as our new Livestock Extension Specialist joining the team on May 3, 2021. We are excited to have her working with Arizona livestock producers and look forward to collaborating with her on state-wide projects.
Joslyn Beard grew up with animal agriculture just outside Las Cruces, NM city limits raising and showing cattle, sheep, and hogs. Following her passion for animal agriculture, Beard decided to make a career of it and graduated from New Mexico State University with a Bachelor of Science degree. During her undergraduate program, Beard took an opportunity to be involved with animal science research working for Dr. Dennis Hallford as the flock manager of the West Sheep Unit and a lab technician in Hallford’s endocrinology lab. During this period Beard found a new passion doing animal research and pursued a master’s degree at New Mexico State University while simultaneously serving as the wool judging coach. Her master's research focused primarily on nutrition and reproduction interaction, looking at how maternal stimuli during gestation impacted beef progeny performance. Beard continued her education receiving her Ph.D. in Animal Physiology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During her Ph.D. Beard was able to work on a large scope of projects from optimizing fatty acid mobilization from fat tissue, evaluating cow age effects on calf performance, and identifying mechanisms related to adaptation and resiliency in 2 yr old lactating range cows. Beard’s future research aspirations focus on the nutrition and reproductive interaction associated with sustainability and resiliency of beef cattle grazing on extensive rangelands.