When Dr. Kelly Nichols talks about dairy cows, you can hear the enthusiasm in her voice. As an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Animal Science, Nichols is part of a group of researchers who are looking at one of the most complex challenges in livestock production: how to feed cows in ways that support productivity, animal health, and environmental stewardship.
When you ask Dr. Troy Rowan how he ended up in the world of cattle genetics, he’ll tell you he “came to the field from the field.”
Rowan, now an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, grew up surrounded by cattle on his family’s Charolais operation in Iowa. His family has been farming and ranching there for more than a century — long enough for the rhythms of agriculture to get in his blood.
During a CLEAR Conversations podcast, which was filmed at the 2025 State of the Science Summit held at UC Davis, Anna Trillingsgaard from the Embassy of Denmark shared how their ambitious plan came to be and what it means for farmers, the environment, and the global agricultural community who is watching closely.
When it comes to talking about methane and cattle, few people can make the science sound both accessible and hopeful quite like Dr. Sara Place. A former UC Davis graduate student and now an associate professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University, Place has built her career around understanding how livestock can be part of the climate solution — not just part of the problem.
