Bumpers College Animal Science Faculty Connect with University in Mexico

Karli Yarber

Mike Looper, professor of animal science, and Daniel Rivera, director of the Southwest Research and Extension Center.

Mike Looper and Daniel Rivera recently presented to a collegiate cattlemen's group through an informational webinar in November that connected students and faculty between the U of A and Universidad Autonoma de Neuvo Leon in Monterrey, Mexico. 

Looper is a professor and head of the Department of Animal Science in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, and Rivera is director of the Southwest Research and Extension Center in Hope, a 1,185-acre laboratory managed by the U of A System Division of Agriculture.

After being contacted by the group in Mexico, Looper and Rivera planned a webinar via Facebook Live to share about the department, research opportunities and experience among faculty members, as well as the background of the Hope extension center.

Rivera was contacted by the group at UANL after presenting during an Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service webinar in July, where he spoke about raising cattle in a drought. The university group, a club named Charolais-Charbray Juvenil, saw the webinar, which led to many questions about cow management during droughts. After hearing responses from Rivera, the UANL students and faculty became interested in the U of A System Division of Agriculture.

After making the connection between the Division of Agriculture, education and academics, and animal science, UANL students and faculty have proposed plans to visit Arkansas next spring to tour the Southwest Research and Extension Center, various livestock operations and Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station farms and labs associated with animal science in Fayetteville.

More collaborations are still potentially in the works.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at Bumpers College.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.