Research project ideas

[RidinHeifer]

So, I am looking for ideas for my undergraduate research project.  I will probably do it spring of 2014 or fall 2015.  It needs to be something that can be completed in a semester...preferably a couple months or so.  I have a few ideas myself..most are sheep projects, but I want some ideas for beef too in case I can't work with sheep.  I would really appreciate any sheep or cattle project ideas you have!

My list of ideas:
effect of nuflor on sterility in breeding age rams
something looking at performance on certain creep feeds in lambs
looking at katahdins(hair sheep) to see what makes them more fly and tick repellent

 

[RidinHeifer]

Bump.  Doesn't have to be anything to crazy scientific...surely you guys can come up with a couple ideas   Anything that you have wondered about or always thought was fascinating??  My only beef related idea would be comparing full blood Lowlines and full blood Angus from birth to rail, but that's a 2 year project and out of the question.  I am looking for just about any type of project (repro, nutrition, health, etc)

 

[firesweepranch]

The problem is your time frame. Just about anything beef takes time to study. Your only option would be to take a "slice" of part of an industry, like digestion of a certain element feed to cattle, or something to do with the cycle to get better conception rates (or even responses to drugs). Completing something in one semester would be hard, in my opinion.

 

[obie105]

The time frame makes it hard.  My friend did one on feedstuffs and how they effected chicken growth. It was a short term project and didn't cost much money or required much for space.

 

[DL]

So, I am looking for ideas for my undergraduate research project.  I will probably do it spring of 2014 or fall 2015.  It needs to be something that can be completed in a semester...preferably a couple months or so.  I have a few ideas myself..most are sheep projects, but I want some ideas for beef too in case I can't work with sheep.  I would really appreciate any sheep or cattle project ideas you have!

My list of ideas:
effect of nuflor on sterility in breeding age rams
something looking at performance on certain creep feeds in lambs
looking at katahdins(hair sheep) to see what makes them more fly and tick repellent

So this is something you have to do - not just read the literature - do I have that right??

If so you could do something with cattle behavior and "time budgets"- for example
- behavior of cows (calves, pairs) during weaning
- behavior of cows dry lotted vs pasture
- comparison of bull and steer calf behavior
- comparison of behavior in winter and summer


etc

to do this you need to observe in a organized fashion and you would need to develop an ethogram - there has been some work done on cattle behavior so you wouldn't be starting from scratch