By Sara Delheimer
At the recent AgInnovation Annual Meeting in Grand Junction, CO, Dr. Andrea Cupp of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln accepted the 2026 National Excellence in Multistate Research Award on behalf of an interdisciplinary team focused on improving reproductive performance in cattle and sheep. The team includes scientists from 23 Land‑grant Universities.
This award honors more than five decades of impactful work from the Hatch Multistate Research Project Reproductive Performance in Domestic Ruminants, which has shaped livestock management nationwide. The project received $15,000 from the Hatch Multistate Research Fund to support continued progress.
Reproductive inefficiency remains a major challenge for U.S. producers; early pregnancy loss alone costs up to $3.7 billion annually. Even a 1% improvement in calf or lamb production, an achievable outcome supported by this project, could generate more than $1 billion per year for producers. These gains stabilize supplies, reduce prices and support industries that collectively contribute $243 billion in economic value and 2.3 million jobs.
The project’s success reflects the strength of the Hatch Multistate framework, which unites expertise across physiology, molecular biology, genetics, immunology, nutrition, biostatistics and livestock management. Through this collaboration and Federal capacity funding, researchers have developed foundational reproductive models in cattle and sheep, created deep‑learning algorithms for sperm biomarker detection and advanced genetic tools that help producers identify heifers with delayed puberty, saving up to $2,500 per animal.
Source : usda.gov