The Forage and Ruminant Nutrition Lab at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Stephenville explores ways to improve ruminant diets and mitigate negative environmental impacts for researchers around the state, nation and globe, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Research expert.

The lab is used by researchers throughout Texas, the southeastern U.S. and as far away as South Africa, Brazil and Argentina, said Jim Muir, AgriLife Research grassland ecologist, Stephenville.

The lab analyzes soils and manure to determine mineral content and forages to measure digestibility and nutritional quality of what livestock are consuming or might consume, Muir said.

Nichole Cherry, an AgriLife Research associate, is the person who makes the lab run, Muir said.

Cherry has performed more than 100,000 assays in her 13 years in the lab on samples to determine various aspects of forage and soil composition, from digestibility of forages to condensed tannin levels to identifying elements and compounds within samples.

For example, Cherry uses a machine that emulates an animals digestive system, Muir said. In hours it can predict digestibility that would take up to six weeks by testing animals in pastures or feedlots. The machine can analyze 50 samples in 48 hours.

We can predict the effects and digestibility of anything the animal might ingest, he said.

The majority of the labs work is on small ruminants, such as sheep and goats, which are more popular globally, and some white-tailed deer, Muir said. About 60 to 70 percent of samples sent in by researchers serving producers are small ruminants.

Cherrys work with condensed tannins has put the lab on the global map because it focuses on vegetation, such as forbs and dicots, that naturally address internal parasites that can be deadly to ruminants, Muir said.

Parasites are especially rampant in tropical regions where rainfall and warm temperatures are prevalent, he said. In Texas, springtime and over-grazed pastures present parasite challenges for producers.

Muir said condensed tannins are a natural tool for producers who hope to mitigate losses to parasites.

Condensed tannins evolved in plants as a way to protect themselves, he said. It usually makes them bitter and less palatable or poisonous to animals or insects, but some animals have harnessed their protective features in a co-evolutionary relationship.

Tannins can be good and bad for animals, so the lab tries to identify ratios to help producers decide whether to increase or reduce certain browse, such as woody plants and shrubs, in diets, especially for browsers such as goats and white-tailed deer, Muir said.

Tests can determine the level of condensed tannins, where they are in the plant cell, how it is delivered and breaks down in the animals digestive tract, or how biologically aggressive it is in fighting gastro-intestinal parasites.

Condensed tannin assays take about two weeks, Muir said.

Cherry has trained nearly 40 graduate students, many of who came to the lab from other countries like Colombia and Kenya, to assay condensed tannins and return home with the knowledge.

She was recently awarded the Texas A&M Soil and Crop Sciences Departmental Research Support-Lab Award for her work.

Without Nichole and her lab, our research program on small ruminant gastro-intestinal parasites, such as barberpole worm, would not exist, Muir said.Producers in Texas, the southeastern U.S. and many corners of the world depend on her assays to keep their animals healthy and increase their profits.

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Forage and Ruminant Lab helps researchers, producers improve animal diets - High Plains Journal

MARVIN JOSEPH | The Washington Post

Five Washington Post staffers plan to try five diets in January to see how they work. From left: Food and Dining Editor Joe Yonan, Local Living Editor Kendra Nichols, food critic Tom Sietsema, Deputy Food Editor Bonnie S. Benwick and sportswriter Adam Kilgore.

A month ago, five Washington Post staffers embarked on a 30-day diet, each looking for a way to reset their eating habits. Now, theyre turning the page, but this is much more than a tidy endpoint: Its the beginning of making their new, healthy habits stick.

This month-long challenge wasnt a contest per se, and there is no one winner; all the staffers made their chosen plans work for them, and each has good results to show for it. Collectively theyve freed themselves from unhealthy habits and adopted positive ones; they have been enjoying more nutritious foods and less hyper-processed, sugary stuff; they have been eating more sensible amounts more mindfully; and they feel better and have lost weight.

But, predictably, life also got in the way of some of the goals they set with house moves, IRS audits, traffic jams, travel and irresistible parties interfering with their best intentions. I spoke with each of them to get their main take-aways from this diet experiment, and help them strategize all-important next steps. I also managed to convince them to let me check in with them next January to see how they have fared a year later.

If you started a diet on Jan. 1 like they did, or otherwise made resolutions to live healthier, this is an invitation to pause, reflect on your successes and, perhaps, dreams dashed over the past month and recalibrate your plan so you can keep moving forward. Hopefully, the insights shared here will inspire and inform your own next steps.

Kendras wise words to those thinking about the Whole30 diet is to be smart about planning when to start. For her, this challenge was smack in the middle of a move, making it more stressful and difficult than it otherwise would have been.

Being between homes and unable to locate the right cookware amid all the boxes, she found it nearly impossible to achieve one of her main personal goals: trying an array of new recipes. She also told me she was crankier than usual, to the point where her co-workers dubbed her diet persona Whole30 Kendra.

But she admirably stuck it out, and lost 9 pounds in the process. Along the way she learned, among other things, that it suits her to eat a hearty breakfast so she isnt hungry again until lunchtime, and that she can live happily without a vending-machine sugar fix or the 20-ounce diet soda she had been drinking daily.

Kendra has done Whole30 before, and does well with a strict set of rules to follow. The downside has been that when the diet is over, she is left rudderless and winds up returning to her old habits. Last time she did Whole30 she skipped the reintroduction phase (in which you gradually add back the forbidden foods) and went straight to cake.

This time she is thinking more long-term. Shes going to view the suggested reintroduction as an extension of the rules, following the specific 10-day transition the book offers. Even more, Im going to make myself a little rule book to follow thereafter.

This personal, formalized structure will go a long way toward helping Kendra achieve what she called her ultimate goal: making moderation the new normal.

Tom sees food though a somewhat different lens after following the Weight Watchers program for the past month. The plan makes you aware of the consequences of different choices, he said.

Having been allotted 36 points a day, Tom quickly learned that some foods, like what became his go-to snack, almonds and clementines, offer more satisfaction for fewer points than, say, peanut butter-filled pretzels. And that sometimes you have to choose between a cupcake and a second glass of wine.

While he wont continue to track his points, he says, Doing it a full month, it gets drilled into you. ... Now I know what to do. Besides making smarter choices, he also knows that exercise is a key component, and he is committed to keeping it up regularly.

He also knows its okay to go off the rails a bit once in a while. Confronted with some fabulous restaurant meals (as he frequently will be as the Posts food critic) and a once-in-a-lifetime charity event, he indulged, but even did that mindfully, choosing oysters instead of prosciutto and staying conscientious about portions.

In alignment with the Weight Watchers philosophy, he says: You can splurge just get back on track right after. Enjoy it, mindfully, then forget about it. Dont feel guilty.

Sure, Tom could have lost even more than 7 pounds this month without those splurges, but I believe the experience of being able to get back on track, and the knowledge that you can continue toward your goal weight and indulge, is an even more valuable achievement in the long run.

Joe is the only one of the five who plans to continue his diet indefinitely, a testament both to the flexibility of Buddhas Diet with its only limitation a nine-hour time window for eating and Joes balanced approach to it.

I worried he would be weak from hunger at his morning workout (so he could eat a later dinner) or eat a 5 p.m. dinner alone at his desk rather than with his significant other, or get pulled over for speeding and try to explain to the officer that he had to rush home to eat on time.

But although Joe did skip eating before his workouts, he felt fine doing it, and although he had to pass on grabbing a late bowl of ramen with friends one night, he found it easy enough to plan ahead so as not to sacrifice the social pleasures of mealtime.

His sage advice: The overarching philosophy is to have a mindful relationship with food, so dont get too anxious about a few minutes here or there. The worst thing would be to let the deadline make you scarf your food down.

In the past 30 days, he has broken the habit of mindlessly munching after dinner, has realized he doesnt have to grab for food at the slightest twinge of hunger and has lost 5 pounds.

I couldnt have done this without tea, he said. Tea helped slow his pace and calm him as he sipped, and because it is allowed outside the nine-hour window as long as it doesnt have sweeteners or milk.

Another key strategy was preparing food ahead, stocking his refrigerator on the weekends with building-block ingredients such as blanched and roasted vegetables, so he could quickly pull meals together on the weekdays.

Once Joe reaches his goal weight (he has another 25 or so pounds to go), his maintenance plan is to add a second cheat day. From what I can tell, Joe has landed on a sustainable way of life that fits him perfectly.

Bonnie is officially sold on soup. The words soup diet sound a little crazy, she said, but its a food that everyone should eat every week its a good go-to.

This month has helped Bonnie reach her main goals of eating more vegetables and getting portions in check. At first she worried the soups wouldnt be enough, but found the opposite to be true. (The volume of vegetable-based soups and the fact that their heat slows you down make them especially filling.)

The big takeaway is her realization that she can be satisfied without overeating, and she now is more in touch with how food makes her feel. She also has stopped eating past 9 p.m.

Her long-range plan is to make soup every week so she always has it on hand. She is also going to pay attention to how she feels as she eats, savoring slowly, and tuning into her level of satiety rather than continuing to eat just because her mouth wants more.

Bonnie wasnt weighing herself this month, but she recently bought a scale so she can track her weight as an incentive and an indicator and if she gets off track, she will do another week of the SouperGirl Cleanse to reorient her. She also has an exciting event to inspire her to maintain these healthy changes: her sons wedding in October.

The notion that you can slip up and then move on gives Adams plan the potential for longevity. He did that a few times this month, with restaurant meals and vacations that drove him off-plan. But his core changes focusing on healthful whole foods, limiting alcohol and exercising more still led the way, and he has dropped 16 pounds as a result.

His positive attitude of embracing the good choices you are making rather than yearning for what you are missing also goes a long way toward his success.

Adam told me the realization that it doesnt have to be all or nothing that he can see results even if he dips off his plan here and there gives him a good template for how to keep this going after April, when he typically returns to his weight-gaining spiral.

I pressed him to come up with specific strategies to put into place at that time, and he outlined this sensible three-pronged approach: 1) weigh in at least once a week; 2) exercise at least twice a week; 3) avoid alcohol for at least two days a week.

Adams overall advice to those embarking on a healthier way of life is simple but profound. Its something we could all make our mantra year-round: Whatever choice you are making, make it a good choice. Then do it again.

Ellie Krieger writes a healthful-eating column for Local Living and a weekly Nourish recipe for Food. She is a registered dietitian, nutritionist and author and hosts public televisions Ellies Real Good Food. Her most recent cookbook is You Have It Made: Delicious, Healthy, Do-Ahead Meals.

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The 5 Diets Project: Everyone lost, and everyone gained - Charleston Gazette-Mail (subscription)

Montana is No. 1 in something; yeah! But we shouldn't cheer. A Missoulian article (Feb. 1), page A7, reviews a pending Montana bill about the dating of milk. Admittedly not a very exciting topic, unless you consider that the current Montana rule was recently selected as a national poster child for how state laws force extravagant waste of food.

The current Montana rule requires milk to be labeled with a "sell by" date that is 12 days after pasteurization. This is the shortest such sale date in the country; most states have no "sell by" date at all. After reaching the "sell by" date Montana retailers must throw out unsold milk; it can't even be donated, even though studies have shown that milk is good much, much longer. And Montana consumers, not understanding this "dating game," may also throw out good milk. Not only is good milk wasted, but reports have shown that milk costs more in Montana. So the 12-day rule, promulgated by the Board of Livestock, causes good milk to be thrown out and consumers to pay more for milk. Great to be No. 1!

A 2015 legislative proposal to dump the 12-day rule was voted down in a House committee. Now, the 2017 proposal mentioned in the Missoulian article proposes a smaller step of keeping the 12-day "sell by" date but adding a "best by" or "use by" date indicating the number of days after pasteurization that the milk should be fresh and safe for consumers. Thanks to Rep. Greg Hertz, Polson, for his continuing efforts to help out the average Montanan. Unfortunately, keeping the 12-day rule will likely keep Montana the No. 1 national example for food waste.

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Montana No. 1 for wasting milk - The Missoulian