New Extension Beef Cattle Specialist Focused on Nutrition

By Ryan McGeeney

Ally Grote knew from a young age how important nutrition is for a competition animal.

“I was a barrel racer, so making sure my horses were fed was a top priority,” said Grote, the new extension beef cattle specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

“I grew up learning how important nutrition is, regardless of the species,” she said. “And while I needed my horse to perform and carry me through what I needed to do, that transferred over to the cattle side.”

Grote grew up on a cow-calf operation in Missouri, about an hour and a half north of St. Louis, Missouri.

“My dad and I, along with my brother, were very involved with cattle and we still are,” Grote said. “That propelled me into the animal science side of things. Like most little girls, at one point I wanted to be a veterinarian. Then at some point, I reconsidered that.

“I took a step back and reevaluated what I wanted to do,” she said. “Seeing everything that my dad does with the farm, it clicked that nutrition was at the front end of everything.”

Grote recently joined the Division of Agriculture after completing her Ph.D. in ruminant nutrition from Oklahoma State University. The 2025 completion of that degree capped a phase of her career that involved not only academic research including a master’s degree from the University of Arkansas but extension and research as well.

“My main focus was beef-on-dairy crosses,” Grote said of her doctoral research. “That was something that was very popular. There wasn’t a lot of recent research on it at the time our goal was to get it out there.”

As an extension beef cattle specialist in Arkansas, Grote said she will initially focus on identifying producer needs and developing educational and nutritional programs tailored to those, with an emphasis on heifer development.

“I’ve been here three days, and I’ve probably heard ‘heifer development’ mentioned five or 10 times,” she said. “There’s a big nutrition side to heifer development, so clearly that will be a focus.”