Award Winners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 20, 2014

For more information contact:
Joe Cassady, executive director, Beef Improvement Federation, South Dakota State University; 605-688-5165; www.BIFconference.com; www.beefimprovement.org

For a high-resolution photo of the winner, click here.

 

Xi Zeng Honored with Frank Baker Memorial Scholarship

LINCOLN, Neb. (June 20, 2014) — The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) honored Xi Zeng, doctoral student and research assistant at Colorado State University (CSU), the Frank Baker Memorial Scholarship Award during the organization’s research symposium and annual meeting in Lincoln, Neb., June 18-21, 2014.

The Frank Baker Memorial Scholarship Award Essay competition for graduate students provides an opportunity to recognize outstanding student research and competitive writing in honor of Frank Baker. Baker is widely recognized as the “Founding Father” of the BIF. He played a key leadership role in helping establish BIF in 1968, while he was chairman of the Department of Animal Science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Zeng is a doctoral student and research assistant in the Department of Animal Science at CSU specializing in breeding and genetics. She grew up in rural southwest China and spent her childhood working with livestock, fostering her interest in livestock studies. After high school, she attended Sichuan Agriculture University, majoring in animal science.

In 2010, after completing a four-year bachelor’s degree in agronomy of animal science, she enrolled at CSU where she completed a master’s degree in breeding and genetics in 2013. Zeng continues her studies under Milton Thomas and Mark Enns, pursuing a doctorate in breeding and genetics at CSU and assisting with genetic evaluation at the CSU Center for Genetic Evaluation of Livestock.

She currently collaborates with her colleagues in studying high-altitude disease’s indicator trait-pulmonary arterial pressure. She will present her work “High Altitude Disease and Genetics of Beef Cattle at High Elevation Regions” at the 2014 World Congress of Genetics Applied to Livestock Production this August in Vancouver, Canada.

Zeng is a three-time recipient of the Dr. H.H. Stonaker Scholarship award and has also received the Petry Scholarship, and BIF Graduate Student Travel Scholarship.

For more information about this year’s symposium, including additional award winners and coverage of meeting and tours, visit www.BIFconference.com. For more information about BIF, visit www.beefimprovement.org.

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About BIF:

The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) is an organization dedicated to coordinating all segments of the beef industry — from researchers and producers to retailers — in an effort to improve the efficiency, profitability and sustainability of beef production. The organization was initiated almost 70 years ago to encourage the use of objective measurements to evaluate beef cattle. Continuing the tradition, BIF is now the clearinghouse for developing standardized programs and methodologies for recording of performance data for all traits, from birth weights to carcass traits. Its three-leaf-clover logo symbolizes the link between industry, extension and research.

About www.BIFconference.com:

The www.BIFconference.com website is an event coverage site compiled by the Angus Journal staff as a service to its subscribers and the beef industry at large. The Angus Journal’s coverage of this event is made possible through the collaboration of BIF; host organizations including the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center at Clay Center, and the Nebraska Cattlemen; and LiveAuctions.tv, which provided live-streaming video during the event and video for archival purposes. The Angus Journal encourages reprinting of the articles by those who adhere to the reprint guidelines available on the site.

About Angus Journal:

The Angus Journal is the flagship publication of the American Angus Association and a primary means of communication with its membership. Published 12 times each year, the magazine communicates important information about Association programs and services; reports news from shows, events and sales; and provides production, marketing and management information that seedstock breeders need to be successful. The publication also serves an effective vehicle for producers to use in marketing their herds to other members around the country. Advertisements are offered in a variety of sizes at rates to match most budgets, and a creative staff is available to help design an eye-catching layout.