North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center: A Comprehensive Needs Assessment in South Dakota

Objective The overall objective of this project is to work with mobilized partners to form the North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center (NC FRSAC). The NC FRSAC will create and expand stress management and mental health resources and services to agricultural producers, advocates and stakeholders who support agricultural producers. This project is led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. South Dakota State University is one of the partners and our supporting objective is to establish a state-wide task force to develop an assistance network, conduct a comprehensive needs assessment, develop and implement educational workshops to producers and their families, and develop training on farm stress for health care providers

Developing Web Application Tools to Support Beef Cattle Production

Objective The objective of this project was to demonstrate the development of web-based applications to help producers gather and utilize data to make more informed management decisions for their operation

Comparing the Impact of Continuous and Virtually Fenced Rotational Grazing on Animal Behavior and Distribution

Study Description: Six herds of yearling steers (n=127) will graze native summer pastures from May to August at the Cottonwood Field Station near Philip, South Dakota. Six pastures are divided into two groups: a continuous grazing (CG) treatment with a low, moderate, and high stocking density and a virtually fenced rotational (VFR) grazing system with the same stocking densities. VenceTM virtual fence collars were placed on all animals within the study and collected GPS data at 5-minute intervals. The CG collars are not actively managed. The VFR system is actively managed through the collars and rotated based on the amount of available forage and grazing utilization. Results from this study will analyze daily distance traveled, amount of time spent grazing, grazing distribution and impact on animal behavior between the two systems

Using Precision Technology to Measure Cattle Methane Emissions and Intake on Western South Dakota Rangelands

Study Description: Cattle DMI is an essential component of calculating cattle stocking rates, determining nutrient requirements, and evaluating feed efficiency. Cattle DMI and digestion of forages impact enteric greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; a major public and environmental concern. Increased GHG levels indicate energy loss during the rumen fermentation process. Obtaining data for rangeland cattle DMI and GHG emissions is needed to understand and enhance individual animal performance and reduce negative environmental impacts. We will develop enteric emissions and DMI relationships by conducting three feeding trials using the GreenFeed and SmartFeed Pro (C-Lock Inc. Rapid City, SD). The GreenFeed will measure real-time gas fluxes and the SmartFeed Pro will measure daily intake by calculating disappearance from the feeder. The three feeding trials will consist of dry beef cows (n = 12) receiving low, high, and intermediate quality forages treatments with a 15 day adjustment period and a 15 day period of collection. Using these data, regression, artificial neural network, and dynamic-mechanistic models will develop and assessed to identify a model that accurately and precisely predicts forage DMI for dry beef cows on pasture

Men’s Psychotherapy Dropout is Associated with Conformity to Traditional Masculinity Ideologies

Objective: High conformity to traditional masculinity ideologies (TMI) is associated with lower use of psychotherapy, higher self-stigmatization and poor mental health outcomes amongst men. However, the role of conformity to TMI in relation to psychotherapy dropout is still unclear. Aim: The present study aims to clarify the relationship between conformity to TMI and premature termination of psychotherapy (dropout) in men. Method: Data was used from an anonymous online survey in German-speaking Europe. Participants with previous psychotherapy experience provided information on sociodemographics, mental health, TMI, and their past experiences with psychotherapy. Discontinuation of psychotherapy was assessed by self-report and further differentiated into discontinuation with or without consulting the therapist. Men with an unconsulted therapy ending were defined as psychotherapy dropouts. Conformity to TMI was assessed using the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory. Results: Of the 266 men (mean [SD] age, 46.1 [13.6]) with psychotherapy experience, 30.5% (n = 81) reported having discontinued psychotherapy at least once, whereas 17.7% (n = 47) of the total sample reported dropout. These 47 men showed significantly higher conformity to TMI than men who did not report past dropout. The sub-scales of self-reliance and playboy showed the strongest associations with psychotherapy dropout. Conclusions: Dropout from psychotherapy was significantly associated with higher conformity to TMI. Therapists should consider, and where necessary, work to flexibly adapt to TMI which may influence how men engage in mental health care. Such an approach would likely improve men’s ongoing engagement in psychotherapy, promoting opportunities to prevent avoidable psychotherapy dropout for men most at risk of deleterious mental health outcomes

ASAS–NANP Symposium: Mathematical Modeling in Animal Nutrition: Opportunities and Challenges of Confned and Extensive Precision Livestock Production

Modern animal scientists, industry, and managers have never faced a more complex world. Precision livestock technologies have altered management in confned operations to meet production, environmental, and consumer goals. Applications of precision technologies have been limited in extensive systems such as rangelands due to lack of infrastructure, electrical power, communication, and durability. However, advancements in technology have helped to overcome many of these challenges. Investment in precision technologies is growing within the livestock sector, requiring the need to assess opportunities and challenges associated with implementation to enhance livestock production systems. In this review, precision livestock farming and digital livestock farming are explained in the context of a logical and iterative fve-step process to successfully integrate precision livestock measurement and management tools, emphasizing the need for precision system models (PSMs). This fve-step process acts as a guide to realize anticipated benefts from precision technologies and avoid unintended consequences. Consequently, the synthesis of precision livestock and modeling examples and key case studies help highlight past challenges and current opportunities within confned and extensive systems. Successfully developing PSM requires appropriate model(s) selection that aligns with desired management goals and precision technology capabilities. Therefore, it is imperative to consider the entire system to ensure that precision technology integration achieves desired goals while remaining economically and managerially sustainable. Achieving long-term success using precision technology requires the next generation of animal scientists to obtain additional skills to keep up with the rapid pace of technology innovation. Building workforce capacity and synergistic relationships between research, industry, and managers will be critical. As the process of precision technology adoption continues in more challenging and harsh, extensive systems, it is likely that confned operations will beneft from required advances in precision technology and PSMs, ultimately strengthening the benefts from precision technology to achieve short- and long-term goals

The Effects of Varying Degrees of Japanese Barberry Invasion on the Abundance of Blacklegged Ticks and White-footed Mice

Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry) is an invasive shrub that escaped cultivation and spread in the northeastern United States. The impact of varying degrees of Japanese barberry invasion on the abundances of a Lyme disease bacterium vector, Ixodes scapularis (blacklegged tick), and reservoir, Peromyscus leucopus (white-footed mouse) was investigated. Blacklegged ticks and white-footed mice in three habitats with different levels of Japanese barberry invasion (fully invaded, partially invaded, non-invaded) were surveyed. The efficacy of three tick collection techniques (flagging, dry ice traps, walking) within these habitats were evaluated. Blacklegged ticks and white-footed mice were more abundant in the fully invaded habitat than the non-invaded and partially invaded habitats. The walking method was most effective for collecting blacklegged ticks. Habitat management that prevents full invasion by Japanese barberry may limit the abundance of Lyme disease bacterium vectors and reservoirs, thus contributing to disease management

PSII-11 Using GPS Data and Daily Weights to Estimate Net Energy for Activity in Yearling Steers

Past research has provided the groundwork into determining the impact of daily activity, elevation, and slope on energetic requirements for rangeland cattle. However, there is not a consensus on how to accurately account for this dynamic. Thus, the objectives of this study were to 1) calculate rolling and roughness index and distance traveled respective of elevation change and 2) create a regression analysis from objective 1 and determine differences in precision between the two methods for determining changes in NEmract. This analysis compared two methods to estimate the energetic costs of travel on elevation and slope on net energy for activity (NEmract). The analysis was conducted from a dataset consisting of six herds of yearling steers (n = 127) that grazed native summer pastures from May to August in 2021 at the Cottonwood Field Station (Philip, SD). Pastures were composed primarily of native C3 grasses, Nassella viridula and Pascopyrum smithii, and C4 grasses, Bouteloua gracilis and Buchloe dactyloides. VenceTM collars were set to record GPS fixes at 5-minute intervals. GPS data was coupled with real time weight data collected from Smart Scales (C-Lock Inc, Rapid City, SD) located at the stock tanks within six pastures at three different stocking rates treatments (n = 3, 2 reps per trt). The combination of weight and GPS data allowed for the quantification of how elevation, slope, and daily distance traveled impacted NEmract. The first method to account for daily travel is a quantification of terrain use. This method has two indexes, a roughness index and rolling index, to determine the impact of terrain on grazing distribution. Roughness index is a measure of slope and elevation of an individual animal in comparison to the herd. The rolling index quantifies animal distribution by accounting for distance from water. The second method calculated the distance and elevation changes between successive GPS fixes for individual animals over the course of the summer grazing period. The linear regression was conducted in Program R (P \u3c 0.05) which regressed NEmr plus NEmract calculated using the two methods against back-calculated to NEmr using daily body weight and forage nutrient composition (TDN). The result of this analysis provides levels of precision for different methods when quantifying the daily distance traveled, of steers relative to horizontal and ascending locomotion helping to evaluate trade-offs based on available GPS data (e.g., 5 minutes versus 1 hour recording intervals). Technological advances have allowed unprecedented data collection on individual animals. Results from this study will help refine energetic equations on extensive rangeland systems which is important due to the inherently large travels distances on these production settings

Seeding, Herbicide, and Fungicide Impact on Perennial Grass Establishment in Cheatgrass Infested Habitats

The article discusses research which examined the impact of seeding, herbicide and fungicide on Bromus tectorum, a perennial grass. Topics discussed include factors contributing to Bromus tectorum invasion into rangelands, reasons for failure of revegetation of native species, integration of herbecide imazapic with generalist grass pathogen Pyrenophora semeniperda and common causes of revegetation failure addressed by integrating multiple management strategies

Temperature effects on three downy brome \u3cem\u3e(Bromus tectorum)\u3c/em\u3e seed collections inoculated with the fungal pathogen \u3cem\u3ePyrenophora semeniperda\u3c/em\u3e

Downy brome (Bromus tectorum L., syn. cheatgrass) is a winter annual grass that invades North American cropping, forage, and rangeland systems. Control is often difficult to achieve, because B. tectorum has a large seedbank, which results in continuous propagule pressure. Pyrenophora semeniperda (Brittlebank and Adam) Shoemaker, a soilborne fungal pathogen, has been investigated as a biological control for B. tectorum, because it can kill seeds that remain in the seedbank, thereby reducing propagule pressure. Temperature influences P. semeniperda and has not been investigated in the context of seeds collected from different B. tectorum locations, that may vary in susceptibility to infection. We compared the effects of temperature (13, 17, 21, 25 C) and B. tectorum seed locations (range, crop, subalpine) with different mean seed weights on infection rates of P. semeniperda using a temperature-gradient table. Infection differed by seed location (P \u3c 0.001) and temperature (P \u3c 0.001), with lighter-weight seeds (i.e., range and subalpine) more susceptible to P. semeniperda infection. Infection increased as temperature increased and was higher at 21 C (66.7 ± 6.7%) and 25 C (73.3 ± 6.0%). Germination was affected by seed location (P \u3c 0.001) and temperature (P = 0.019). Germination was highest for the crop seed location (45.4 ± 4.2%) and overall decreased at higher temperatures (21 and 25 C). Our results suggest that B. tectorum seeds from a crop location are less affected by P. semeniperda than those from range and subalpine locations. Moreover, this demonstrates a temperature-dependent effect on all populations