Waste management is part of doing business for North Carolina’s 46,000 crop and livestock farms. And at North Carolina State University, researchers and extension specialists are working to cut waste management costs, create income from value-added products, and protect the environment. Two ways that the university is working to deliver waste management solutions: by helping farmers use plant-based agricultural leftovers to feed beef cattle and by finding ways efficient to turn hog manure into fertilizer and renewable energy.
Our Guests
For 30 years, Matt Poore has served as a professor and beef Extension specialist at NC State University, where he focuses on nutrition for beef cattle, sheep and meat goats. He grew up spending his summers in North Carolina and his winters in the western part of the country. He often wondered why cows in North Carolina seemed to be merely part of the landscape, while in the West they were big business. The contrast captured his interest, and so he decided to study animal science and nutrition. At Arizona State University, he earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in the field.
Deidre Harmon has worked at NC State for three years as an assistant professor and extension livestock specialist stationed at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville. She grew up on a cow-calf farm, where she enjoyed feeding the cows and seeing how nutrition influenced the kinds of calves the cows produced. She holds bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, a master’s from Virginia Tech and a doctorate from the University of Georgia.
Jay Cheng is a professor of biological and agricultural engineering at NC State University, with a primary focus on research and teaching related to environmental engineering and bioenergy processes. He has engaged in research collaborations around the globe and holds three engineering degrees: a bachelor’s degree from Jiangxi Institute of Technology in China, a master’s from Saints Cyril and Methodius University in North Macedonia and a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati.