OSU Agriculture focuses on animal agriculture through Animal Excellence Initiative
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Media Contact: Mandy Gross | Sr. Manager, Strategic & VP Communications | 405-744-4063 | mandy.gross@okstate.edu
Oklahoma State University is building on its long-standing tradition of leadership in animal agriculture with the launch of the OSU Agriculture Animal Excellence initiative, a comprehensive effort to elevate teaching, research and Extension programs that impact animal health.
At the heart of this initiative is the creation of the Beef Center of Excellence, a cross-disciplinary hub designed to unite experts across the beef supply chain.
The Beef Center of Excellence will drive innovation through cutting-edge research, advanced Extension services and collaborative partnerships aimed at improving profitability and sustainability for beef producers today and in the future, said Robert Hodgen, president and CEO of King Ranch Inc. and a member of the Beef Center of Excellence advisory board.
“Creating the Beef Center of Excellence is a way to put a stake in the ground and say that Oklahoma State is going to be great at thinking about the broader cattle and beef industry,” Hodgen said. “By having this, we can attract even more great students from around the world, who want to focus on making a great-tasting product that’s nutritious for the consumer and grown in a sustainable manner.”
Supported by an advisory board, an executive director and endowed chairs in areas such as artificial intelligence, beef cattle economics, and rangeland ecology, the Beef Center of Excellence will fund impactful research and outreach.
Additionally, the Animal Excellence initiative includes facility and technology upgrades to modernize OSU’s animal teaching and research units.
OSU remains one of the few universities with operating units for all food animal species and is nationally recognized for the superior quality of livestock, teaching and research, all within proximity to OSU’s main campus.
“The animal units are a critical part of everything we do,” said Dr. Richard Coffey, head of the OSU Department of Animal and Food Sciences. “The animal units so close to campus give us the opportunity to use them as a recruiting tool for real, hands-on teaching with our students. Part of the reason we get students from more than 40 different states across the U.S. is that they know they can come to OSU and participate in hands-on learning as part of their education.”
OSU Agriculture established the Animal Unit Endowment Fund to address critical infrastructure needs, advancing experiential learning and research capabilities to enhance human, animal and environmental health.
“We are at the point that a lot of our facilities are starting to show their age,” Coffey said. “We’ve completed some master planning to really think about what the next 20 to 30 years will look like for those units, not only to keep the locations where they’re at, but also to have modern facilities for our students. We’re looking to upgrade some of our facilities since they are at the end of their functional life.”
Recently, the Oklahoma Pork Council made a generous gift to the OSU Swine Research and Education Center to support building improvements and ensure the long-term sustainability of this vital program.
The Oklahoma Pork Council Board of Directors values the work OSU does in swine production research and in providing hands-on learning experiences for students, said Kylee Deniz, executive director of the Oklahoma Pork Council.
“As a board representing the full spectrum of Oklahoma’s pork industry, from first-time 4-H exhibitors to our largest commercial producers, our mission is to support each segment,” Deniz said. “We believe the OSU Swine Research and Education Center is pivotal in equipping the university to lead the swine industry forward through cutting-edge research that can be applied directly on Oklahoma pig farms.”
Deniz said the Oklahoma Pork Council wants to help build the Swine Research and Education Center for the future, a facility that will not only support the industry through relevant, high-quality production research but also train and equip students to enter and excel in the pork industry workforce.
“OSU has the potential to serve as a hub for the pork industry and as a trusted resource for consumers who want to better understand how pigs are raised,” she said. “Through this investment, the benefits to the industry reach both sides of on-farm advancements while also building consumer confidence in how Oklahoma pork is produced.”
In addition to the Swine Research and Education Center, the Animal Unit Endowment Fund will provide support to maintain and enhance the student experience and research capabilities of the Charles and Linda Cline Equine Center, the Ferguson Family Dairy Center, the Sheep & Goat Center, the Purebred Beef Center and the Willard Sparks Beef Research Center.
For more information about supporting the Beef Center of Excellence and OSU’s animal teaching and research units, visit Animal Excellence online.