Researchers at University of Nebraska-Lincoln are part of the interdisciplinary team that won agInnovation's 2026 Excellence in Multistate Research Award for work enhancing the reproductive performance of cattle and sheep. Over its 56-year legacy, Hatch Multistate project W4112: Reproductive Performance in Domestic Ruminants has made discoveries and data-driven solutions that have reshaped industry practices, delivering measurable gains in productivity and resilience. Andrea Cupp, the Irvin T. and Wanda R. Omtvedt Professor of Animal Science and a reproductive physiologist at Nebraska, has played a critical role in these advances, contributing research investigating cattle models of androgen excess that are similar to Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), now named polyendocrine metabolic ovary syndrome (PMOS), as a way to understand anovulation; and has developed heritable heifer pubertal classifications to investigate potential mechanisms involved in how heifers attain puberty.
Reproductive inefficiency is the greatest constraint on the profitability of U.S. livestock systems. Early pregnancy loss alone costs U.S. livestock producers up to $3.7 billion each year. Even just a 1% improvement in calf or lamb production due to the project’s innovations (a conservative estimate) would be worth over $1 billion annually to U.S. producers. When producers reduce losses, consumers can enjoy steady supplies and lower prices for meat, dairy, and other goods from cattle and sheep. Thriving beef, dairy, and sheep industries are vital for a healthy economy, generating about $243 billion in total production value each year and supporting 2.3 million jobs.
Using federal Hatch Multistate capacity funding to bring researchers together, the project fosters continuity and collaboration that facilitate impact. Working together across disciplines enables project scientists to address the complex factors that influence reproductive performance across different species, environments, and production systems. Research by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and USDA ARS, with support from New Mexico State University and Colorado State University, may improve genetic predictions of puberty status and allow easier identification of heifers with genetically delayed puberty and shorter reproductive longevity. Identifying and culling those heifers sooner could save producers $2,500 per heifer in development costs.
“Scientists within the W4112-Reproductive Performance in Domestic Ruminants Multistate are excellent colleagues,” said Cupp. “Our goal is to ensure that everyone succeeds with their research and we also help support new investigators by nominating them to speak at our universities and regional and national scientific conferences, as well as serving as external reviewers for promotion and tenure packets. My scientific career has been richer because of the friends and colleagues I have made within W4112.”
Working with researchers in other states enables researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to widely test solutions. The project's multistate research also facilitates widespread adoption of research-based recommendations and tools. Cohesive teams, proven methodologies, and a track record of productivity have enabled the project to leverage competitive grants and become a trusted partner for federal agencies and international organizations. Though this project focuses on livestock reproduction, many discoveries have broader biomedical relevance. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have provided significant funding to support the bridge between animal science and human health impacts. So far, project findings have informed human perinatal medicine and revealed links to human endometrial cancer suppression, and work by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, New Mexico State University, the University of Missouri, University of Wyoming, University of California, Davis, and the USDA-ARS has led to a better understanding of and possible therapies for PMOS a leading cause of infertility in women.
Teaching is also part of the mission at Nebraska and the other land-grant universities leading this project. Together, project members have taught and trained more than 120 graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in just the past five years, supporting the next generation of scientists and producers. Project members of the USDA/NIFA Teaching Grant collaborated to develop educational artificial insemination tools that have benefited instructor lesson plans and students in Kansas, Kentucky, and Nebraska.
In addition to collaborating on research, members of W4112 also help each other develop techniques by cross-training of trainees, aiding with teaching materials that include any tools that they have developed in similar classes. Because Animal Science has hands-on laboratories, many of the tools, techniques, and training that have been shared within W4112 have enhanced teaching efforts at each land grant institution that is represented.
For over 50 years, Hatch Multistate project W4112 has supported resilient U.S. beef, dairy, and sheep industries. The Excellence in Multistate Research Award celebrates the project’s legacy of collaboration, innovation, and impact. The award also supports future impacts. The project has received $15,000 from the Hatch Multistate Research Fund to support their ongoing objectives. The Multistate group is excited to incorporate this financial support into future projects which allows members to succeed at their own universities as well as providing research and teaching support across the region.
Multistate project participants include University of Arizona, University of California, Davis, Colorado State University, University of Connecticut, University of Florida, University of Idaho, University of Illinois, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, University of Kentucky, Mississippi State University, University of Missouri, Montana State University, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, New Mexico State University, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, South Dakota State University, Texas A&M University, Utah State University, Washington State University, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Wyoming. Additional collaborators also include the USDA ARS Livestock and Range Research Laboratory in Miles City, Montana, the University of São Paulo and UNESP (Brazil); CENID-Fisiología e Mejoramiento Animal, INIFAP (Mexico); University of Prince Edward Island (Canada), University of Jordan (Jordan).
