About UF/IFAS and the Animal Sciences Department
The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences (UF/IFAS) ranks No. 1 in Agricultural R&D by the National Science Foundation.
Dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources and the life sciences, UF/IFAS is also charged with the responsibility of making that information accessible throughout the state. To that end, each of Florida's 67 counties is served by a dedicated UF/IFAS office.
Animal Sciences is an academic department of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), a unit of UF/IFAS. Creating new solutions to tomorrow's problems underlies every endeavor in the animal sciences department. In the areas of teaching, research, and extension, faculty members integrate the most modern technologies available with personal expertise and attention to the needs of students and the livestock industry.
The UF/IFAS Department of Animal Sciences' mission is to provide stakeholders with intellectual depth and tools required for self-sustained learning while emphasizing knowledge related to animal agriculture. Conduct research and make knowledge available through teaching and extension to assist food animal and horse enterprises in remaining profitable and sustainable, and providing consumers with economical, safe, and wholesome food.
Students, faculty, and researchers in animal sciences have access to state-of-the-art facilities located in the Gainesville area and state-wide to support teaching, research, and extension activities in dairy, beef, horses, sheep, and swine industries.
UF/IFAS Dairy Science
Many animal science dairy faculty work diligently to discover solutions to some of the most vexing problems in Florida and the global dairy industry. Our faculty are making significant strides toward understanding and solving the dairy industry’s grand challenges, creating practical solutions to current and emerging threats to provide high-quality dairy products from healthy, efficient, profitable, sustainable, and environmentally and welfare-friendly dairy farms.
The UF/IFAS Department of Animal Sciences hosts the Florida Ruminant Nutrition Symposium and the Dairy Production Conference, two recognized premier annual conferences for gathering the latest information about advances in dairy cattle nutrition, management, genetics, welfare, health, and reproduction. Each year a wide variety of topics are presented. Nutritionists, extension specialists, veterinarians, researchers, producers, graduate students, and allied industry representatives have the opportunity to hear timely topics and novel ideas that impact how dairy and beef cattle are fed and managed.
The UF/IFAS Department of Animal Sciences is also internationally recognized by the research programs in nutrition, reproduction, lactation and mammary gland biology, immunology and disease, genetics and genomics, management, precision farming, sub-tropical management, and meat sciences.
FIDA Professional Program students will have the opportunity to meet the instructors, be exposed to current research efforts in dairy science, and visit the UF dairy facility and commercial dairies in Florida and Georgia.