NDSU students and alumni excelled in various competitions and received several awards during the Midwest American Society of Animal Science/American Dairy Science Association meetings in Des Moines, Iowa, March 11-13.

In research paper competitions, senior Zach Carlson, Stanchfield, Minn., was awarded first place in the Undergraduate Poster Competition for his poster titled, “Effect of corn processing and distiller’s grains inclusion on intake, rumination and resting time of finishing steers fed a high concentrate diet.”

Graduate student Arshi Reyaz was awarded second place in the Master of Science Poster Competition for her poster titled, “Nutrient restriction during early and mid-gestation followed by realimentation alters caruncular arterial vasoreactivity in response to bradykinin in beef cows.”

Graduate research assistant Ely Camacho was awarded first place in the Doctoral Poster Competition for her poster titled, “Effects of maternal nutrient restriction followed by realimentation during early to mid-gestation on conceptus development in beef cows.”

A team of NDSU students also participated in the Academic Quadrathlon. Out of 16 teams, the NDSU group was fourth in the oral presentation, sixth in the written test, ninth in the quiz bowl and 10th in the lab practical. Members included Rachael Lagein, a junior from Rock Lake, N.D.; Taylor Cymbaluk, a senior from Crookston, Minn.; Carlson; and Blaine Novak, a sophomore from Fordville, N.D.

In addition, NDSU alumnus Tim Loy, MS ’01, animal and range sciences, received the Outstanding Early Career Agribusiness Award. Loy is director of nutrition and external feeding at Adams Land and Cattle Co., Broken Bow, Neb.

NDSU animal sciences faculty and students presented 22 papers at the meetings.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.