Hector MenendezSouth Dakota State University | SDSU · Animal Science
Hector Menendez
PhD
About
29
Publications
10,356
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243
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Research the interaction between grazing ruminants (e.g., beef cattle; bison) and forages (e.g., grasslands and cover crops). Develop an Extension program to support grazing livestock and grasslands producers, agencies, and industries across South Dakota.
Additional affiliations
January 2011 - May 2012
January 2011 - May 2012
Publications
Publications (29)
Current water footprint assessment methods make a meaningful assessment of livestock water consumption difficult as they are mainly static, thus poorly adaptable to understanding future water consumption and requirements. They lack the integration of fundamental ruminant nutrition and growth equations within a dynamic context that accounts for shor...
Cattle dry matter intake (DMI) is an essential component of calculating cattle stocking rates, determining nutrient requirements, and evaluating grazing efficiency. Cattle DMI and digestion of forages impact enteric greenhouse gas (CO2e) emissions. Enteric emissions include methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), that are eructated by ruminants. Th...
Past research has provided the groundwork into determining the impact of daily activity, elevation, and slope on energetic requirements for rangeland cattle. However, there is not a consensus on how to accurately account for this dynamic. Thus, the objectives of this study were to 1) calculate rolling and roughness index and distance traveled respe...
Improving individual animal efficiency is important for livestock producers to run financially sustainable operations. Developing heifers to replace a cow in the herd is expensive and reducing costs during the growing and reproductive phases is critical to increase profitability. Precision livestock management technologies can help reduce feed wast...
Advancements in precision livestock technology have resulted in an unprecedented amount of data being collected on individual animals. Often processing of these datasets can be time consuming, tedious, and prone to human-error if processed with conventional software. Open-source statistical software (e.g., R of Python) can provide users with tools...
The power and utility of modeling approaches are only as good as the animal scientist's ability to apply them. Critical to this ability is knowledge of what tools are available, how they can be applied, and where to find resources to turn ideas into action. After experiencing a hands-on workshop on Agent-Based Modeling in Agriculture and Making Sen...
Modern animal scientists, industry, and managers have never faced a more complex world. Precision livestock technologies have altered management in confined operations to meet production, environmental, and consumer goals. Applications of precision technologies have been limited in extensive systems such as rangelands due to lack of infrastructure,...
The field of animal science, and especially animal nutrition, relies heavily on modeling to accomplish its day-to-day objectives. New data streams (‘big data’) and the exponential increase in computing power have allowed the appearance of ‘new’ modelling methodologies, under the umbrella of artificial intelligence (AI). However, many of these model...
Approximately 40% of the land use within the Northern Great Plains is dedicated to livestock production, with much of the 89.9 million head of cattle and calves in the U.S. concentrated in this area. Precision livestock management has ushered in a new era of sensors and technology to monitor individual animal’s health, reproductive, and nutritional...
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe disruptions in the supply and demand channels of agriculture and food chains. To begin to address challenges arising from this pandemic, the “Agriculture and Food Supply Chain Resilience in the Face of a Health Crisis” project emerged as an initiative of the Agriculture Food Special Interest Group of the Syst...
COVID-19 has caused severe agriculture and food supply chain disruptions, significantly affecting smallholder farmers who supply most of the world's food, specifically their changes in vulnerability, resilience, and food loss and waste. Therefore, the objective of this study was to understand the complex causal and feedback relationships for this s...
The bison market has been a vital part of the sustained production and conservation of the species. The bison market has largely been dependent on slaughtered bison meat prices since the 1960s. The primary reporting service for bison market data is the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) office, providing monthl...
The lack of real-life experiences, such as handling livestock at a production facility (e.g., ranch), exists for a variety of reasons such as availability, liability, time, and cost, amongst others. As more students enter undergraduate animal science programs without prior exposure to animal handling, the necessity for more hands-on, real-life expe...
The bison market has been a vital part of the sustained production and conservation of the species. This same market has been largely dependent on slaughtered bison meat prices since the 1960s. The primary reporting service for bison market data is the U.S. Department of Agriculture- Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) office, providing onlin...
Livestock water use sustainability is a growing concern in the beef cattle sector. The Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) method has been used to quantify the water footprint (WF) of beef products but does not suggest any specific management strategies to decrease the WF of beef cattle (WFB) within and across the beef supply chain. The WFB is primari...
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe disruptions in the supply and demand channels of agriculture and food chains. As a fundamental approach to addressing complex social, managerial, economic, or ecological problems, system dynamics models have been used to provide a shared understanding of agriculture and food systems resilience and to enhance...
Perception of freshwater use varies between nations and has led to concerns of how to evaluate water use for sustainable food production. The water footprint of beef cattle (WFB) is an important metric to determine current levels of freshwater use and to set sustainability goals. However, current WFB publications provide broad WF values with incons...
The water footprint assessment method has helped to bring livestock water use to the forefront of research to address water challenges under the ecological footprint perspective. The current assessment methods of water use make a meaningful assessment of livestock water use difficult as they are mainly static, thus poorly adaptable to understand fu...
Conversion of grassland to cropland has been linked to many complex environmental challenges in natural resource systems. South Dakota is a mosaic of grasslands, wetlands, and cropland that has experienced tremendous land use change over the past 10 years and is expected to continue for the next 50 years. The rate of future conversion may vary grea...
Anticipated growth in the demand for beef products driven by increased protein consumption, brings into question the efficiency, sustainability, profitability, and social dimensions of water use for U.S. beef production. Current assessment of U.S. beef production provides a wide range (695 to 14,191 L H2O/kg) of water footprint (WF) measurements of...
This paper was aimed to summarize known concepts needed to comprehend the intricate interface between the ruminant animal and the pasture when predicting animal performance, acknowledge current efforts in the mathematical modeling domain of grazing ruminants, and highlight current thinking and technologies that can guide the development of advanced...
Changes in land use from grassland to row crop agriculture may contribute to environmental degradation. Outreach efforts on this topic have largely targeted producers, but interactions with "influencers" may affect producers' conservation decisions. Consequently, we conducted a pilot implementation of a 1-day workshop for both producers and influen...
Despite recent improvements in overall soil health gained through conservation agriculture, which has become a global priority in agricultural systems, soil and water-related externalities (e.g., wind and water erosion) continue to persist or worsen. Using an inductive, systems approach, we tested the hypothesis that such externalities persist due...
South Dakota is a mosaic of grasslands, wetlands, and cropland. A continued shift from grassland to cropland has occurred over the past 10 years and is expected to continue for the next 50 years. The rate of future conversion may vary greatly depending on economics, policy, and demographic factors. In any case, land conversion will influence cumula...
A recurring discussion at the annual international system dynamics conference (ISDC) is
the situation when young researchers, typically master students or PhD. students, institutions. One option to get support is to attend and present at the ISDC, a valuable but
short opportunity. An alternative for continued support is Peer Mentoring Groups (PMGs)...
Managing sustainable fisheries populations relies on an understanding of the interplay between recruitment, growth, and mortality. Recruitment is frequently noted as the most influential parameter of these three dynamic rate functions. The erratic recruitment dynamics of yellow perch (Perca flavescens) often confound fisheries scientists, managers,...
Contemporary issues in agriculture and natural resource management (AGNR) span a wide spectrum of challenges and scales—from global climate change to resiliency in national and regional food systems to the sustainability of livelihoods of small-holder farmers—all of which may be characterized as complex problems. With rapid development of tools and...
Questions
Questions (5)
Looking for suggestions for processed based dairy manure modeling approaches at a high level of aggregation.
I am using these parameters in a model. Only generic parameters are currently needed. Lignin and Nitrogen (%) for roots, stems, etc. would be helpful but are not required.
Seeking to delineate generalized grass type (highly aggregated) in Texas by 10 the major Texas climate divisions. Growing season length (days or months), production (kg/ha), and reference evapotranspiration rates would also be helpful.
Evaluation of Spatial-Temporal Variability of Drought Events in Iran Using Palmer Drought Severity Index and Its Principal Factors (through 1951-2005)
See Table 2 for a published example of PDSI and soil moisture.
An extensive review of literature has led me to believe that the majority of studies emphasize sediment loading (tons/day) into rivers from grassland conversion to cropland. However, few studies have connected total suspended solids (concentration mg/L) changes to grassland conversion in river systems. Some work may even put "TSS" in their title but in reality only report a sediment loading rate.
