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A Texas A&M AgriLife Research laboratory known for three decades of cattle nutrition diagnostics has a new name and a broader mission. The Grazingland Animal Nutrition Laboratory, or GAN Lab, is now the Ranch Diagnostics Laboratory, reflecting an expanded focus on grazing- and wildlife-based production diagnostics for Texas ranches.
The lab is now housed in the Texas A&M Center for Grazinglands and Ranch Management, where it will continue to provide core nutrition testing services and several updated offerings. Those include E. coli and total coliform water testing, cyanotoxin screening and updated pricing for dietary diagnostic analysis and reports.
“The lab will deliver rapid, science-based solutions to improve animal performance, supplementation timing, grazing management and efficiency, soil health management, sustainability outcomes, and, more broadly, ranch-scale decision support,” said Jeff Goodwin, Ph.D., director of the Texas A&M Center for Grazinglands and Ranch Management and AgriLife Research assistant professor in the Texas A&M Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management.
Three decades of science guiding practical stewardship
The Ranch Diagnostics Lab builds on a 30-year legacy of using advanced analytical technology to guide practical decision-making for grazing management and nutrition.
“Producer relationships, service and applied research have defined the lab for decades and remain at the core of our mission,” said Barbara Rodrigues, Ph.D., research scientist and manager of the Ranch Diagnostics Lab.
Dietary diagnostic analysis of manure using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy, NIRS, is central to the lab’s work.
Rodrigues said that by shining near-infrared light on dried livestock manure samples and applying calibrated equations, the lab’s scientists can identify key nutritional markers such as crude protein and digestible organic matter.
Additional decision support software then factors in environmental conditions and animal profiles to determine if dietary needs are being met. From there, the lab develops a comprehensive report that provides insight into nutritional needs as well as rangeland and forage conditions.
Updated pricing and new tests offered
Domestic livestock aren’t the only animals supported by Texas’ working lands — many ranches are managed with wildlife health and productivity in mind.
Using fecal NIRS technology, the Ranch Lab can monitor diet quality in species such as white-tailed deer. The goal is to help land managers evaluate habitat conditions and guide management decisions to support wildlife populations.
Ultimately, the lab provides critical insight into the health of the domestic and wild animals supported by the states’ working landscapes.
“The lab provides producers and industry partners with timely, defensible, ranch-relevant data that improves management decisions,” Goodwin said. “This is key to advancing the Center for Grazinglands and Ranch Management’s mission of safeguarding the ecologic and economic resiliency of grazing land resources and ranching operations in Texas.”
Enhance ranch productivity
Make data-driven decisions for your ranch with precise information on forage quality, livestock nutritional demands and water quality.
