Dr. Bud Britton, a longtime professor in Animal Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was elected to the Plains Nutrition Council's Legends of Feedlot Nutrition earlier this year.
Established in 2016, the Legends of Feedlot Nutrition's purpose is to honor, recognize, and memorialize those who have contributed to and who have had a profound and lasting impact on the feedlot industry as it relates to innovation, leadership, advancement, service, and education in the area of feedlot nutrition in the areas of consulting, academia/extension, or allied industry. Britton joins emeritus professors Dr. Terry Klopfenstein (2018) and Dr. Terry Mader (2025) in the Legends of Feedlot Nutrition.
Britton served as a ruminant biochemist in the Department of Animal Science at Nebraska from 1971 until his untimely death on April 26, 1994. His research helped redefine the anomaly that was acidosis in feedlot cattle, providing critical advancements in the understanding of ruminal and post-ruminal lactate metabolism and also improved the understanding of the role of lactic acid during the adaptation to high-concentrate diets. He was instrumental in the development of a subacute acidosis model that was highly effective for the evaluation of feed additive efficacy on subacute acidosis during the transition to high-grain diets. The use of measures of feed intake variation during this critical transition period was novel and helped define the role of Rumensin during this critical step-up period, as well as differentiating the impact of subacute versus acute acidosis. In addition, his research made significant contributions to the study of starch utilization, focusing on grain type, fermentability, and processing, as well as the roles of protozoa and the effects of dietary fat on starch use and the propensity to induce acidosis. His inquiries sought to both facilitate this process, for example, studies to enhance ruminal lactate utilization, and experiments assessing the role of absorbed lactate and how it was metabolized. He had a significant impact on aspects of nutritional management that were difficult to quantify, but that substantially reduced the costs of production.
Bud was also an innovator in the study of rumen protein degradability. This area included both methods to assess protein degradability in vivo and, in the laboratory, including studies describing the limitations of the use of ADIN, and the application of enzymes to characterize rumen protein degradability. These studies ultimately led to the study of methods to limit rumen degradability, resulting in the development of the non-enzymatic browning treatment, and creation of the patented soybean meal product – Soypass. One of the most successful patents in Nebraska's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR).
Bud’s main strength as a researcher was to bring a unique perspective to the understanding of beef cattle nutrition. He was nontraditional in his background and approach and always encouraged his students to seek the ‘whys’ behind every outcome. He could make complex explanations understandable for all, and he had a unique ability to communicate complex concepts, from basic nutrition principles to advanced biochemistry, ensuring that knowledge was effectively transferred to both livestock producers and graduate students alike. He always wanted his doctoral students to “bring something new into the program” as they strived to answer fundamental questions. Bud was also a willing collaborator, conducting many studies in collaboration with researchers at the US Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC).
While Dr. Britton’s career ended prematurely, his impact has continued through the 11 M.S. and eight Ph.D. students he mentored and over 100 scientific publications during his career. His contributions were recognized in 1996 with the Bud Britton Memorial Symposium on Metabolic Disorders of Feedlot Cattle at the American Society of Animal Science annual meeting.
