Director column

IBC director's monthly column featured in Cattleman Magazine. Archives
Denise Schwab, interim IBC director	July 2025 Hooray!! July is finally here!! Why all the excitement about July? Well, other than county fairs, fireworks, and community celebrations, July means we have a new director of the Iowa Beef Center! Our team is excited to introduce Aimee Wertz-Lutz as the new Director of the Iowa Beef Center and state Extension feedlot specialist. I’m sure Aimee will tell us more about herself once she takes over the reins of writing this column, but for now I’d like to introduce her and a little of her background. In a way, we are welcoming her BACK to Iowa! While she grew up in Illinois and received her education from Illinois State University and the University of Illinois, she spent two years working on her post-doc at Iowa State University under Drs. Allen Trenkle and Donald Beitz. So, she comes with a great knowledge of Iowa and our Midwest beef production systems. She also spent eight years at South Dakota State University in ruminant nutrition teaching and research where she focused on the regulation of feed intake, composition of gain, and by-product utilization. From research and teaching, Aimee moved on to private industry as the Ruminant Nutrition Research Manager for ADM Animal Nutrition. She maintained her focus on research particularly ruminant digestion, metabolism, amino acids, and grazing supplementation both within the company as well as in partnership with universities. She also continued in a teaching and leadership role to others in the company and producers. Some of you may know Aimee from her most recent role as the Ruminant Nutritionist for Devenish Animal Nutrition, where she continued her focus on disseminating ruminant research to the industry and producers. Aimee has been active throughout her career in the American Society of Animal Science, serving on numerous committees as well as the national Board of Directors. She published many peer-reviewed journal articles from her participation in nearly $2 million in grants, has been invited to speak at numerous national programs, and has been an adjunct professor at Kansas State University, South Dakota State University, and Purdue University. I could go on and on about her experience and background, but more important is her enthusiasm and commitment to producers and the beef industry. Her leadership skills have her positioned well to continue to build the Iowa Beef Center and the beef industry into the future. I hope you all get the chance to meet her soon as I’m sure she will be traveling throughout the state to meet beef producers and visit operations. Watch for her upcoming articles in the Growing Beef newsletter and for future programs with her on the agenda! If you haven’t had the chance to attend the Feedlot Short Course, I’d encourage you to see if there are any openings this year. The Feedlot Short Course will be July 29-31 at the Hansen Center at ISU and has limited attendance to optimize hands-on demonstrations and small group instructions. It features Drs. Dan Loy, Garland Dahlke and Terry Engelken from ISU, Dr. Robbie Pritchard from SDSU, and Dr. A.J. Tarpoff from Kansas State. Watch for the announcement when registration goes live in the Growing Beef newsletter, check out the website or reach out to Erika Lundy-Woolfolk at ellundy@iastate.edu for more information. Watch for upcoming pasture walks and forage programs in your area. If you aren’t already receiving our Growing Beef newsletter sign up at https://go.iastate.edu/UIQJTM or by clicking the QR code. The IBC at Iowa State University serves as the university’s extension program to cattle producers. Our center comprises a team of faculty and staff from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Veterinary Medicine and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. We work together to develop and deliver the latest in research-based information to improve the profitability and vitality of Iowa’s beef industry. If you’d like to be notified of updates on progress of research projects or programs that might be coming to your area, please subscribe to our “Growing Beef” newsletter by following the link on our website, www.iowabeefcenter.org. If you have a question, use our “Ask our Experts” link. Also, feel free to call us at 515-294-BEEF or email us at beefcenter@iastate.edu. You can follow @iowabeefcenter on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

IBC director's monthly column featured in Cattleman Magazine. Archives

Denise Schwab, interim IBC director

July 2025

Hooray!! July is finally here!! Why all the excitement about July? Well, other than county fairs, fireworks, and community celebrations, July means we have a new director of the Iowa Beef Center! Our team is excited to introduce Aimee Wertz-Lutz as the new Director of the Iowa Beef Center and state Extension feedlot specialist.

I’m sure Aimee will tell us more about herself once she takes over the reins of writing this column, but for now I’d like to introduce her and a little of her background. In a way, we are welcoming her BACK to Iowa! While she grew up in Illinois and received her education from Illinois State University and the University of Illinois, she spent two years working on her post-doc at Iowa State University under Drs. Allen Trenkle and Donald Beitz. So, she comes with a great knowledge of Iowa and our Midwest beef production systems. She also spent eight years at South Dakota State University in ruminant nutrition teaching and research where she focused on the regulation of feed intake, composition of gain, and by-product utilization.

From research and teaching, Aimee moved on to private industry as the Ruminant Nutrition Research Manager for ADM Animal Nutrition. She maintained her focus on research particularly ruminant digestion, metabolism, amino acids, and grazing supplementation both within the company as well as in partnership with universities. She also continued in a teaching and leadership role to others in the company and producers. Some of you may know Aimee from her most recent role as the Ruminant Nutritionist for Devenish Animal Nutrition, where she continued her focus on disseminating ruminant research to the industry and producers.

Aimee has been active throughout her career in the American Society of Animal Science, serving on numerous committees as well as the national Board of Directors. She published many peer-reviewed journal articles from her participation in nearly $2 million in grants, has been invited to speak at numerous national programs, and has been an adjunct professor at Kansas State University, South Dakota State University, and Purdue University.

I could go on and on about her experience and background, but more important is her enthusiasm and commitment to producers and the beef industry. Her leadership skills have her positioned well to continue to build the Iowa Beef Center and the beef industry into the future. I hope you all get the chance to meet her soon as I’m sure she will be traveling throughout the state to meet beef producers and visit operations. Watch for her upcoming articles in the Growing Beef newsletter and for future programs with her on the agenda!

If you haven’t had the chance to attend the Feedlot Short Course, I’d encourage you to see if there are any openings this year. The Feedlot Short Course will be July 29-31 at the Hansen Center at ISU and has limited attendance to optimize hands-on demonstrations and small group instructions. It features Drs. Dan Loy, Garland Dahlke and Terry Engelken from ISU, Dr. Robbie Pritchard from SDSU, and Dr. A.J. Tarpoff from Kansas State. Watch for the announcement when registration goes live in the Growing Beef newsletter, check out the website or reach out to Erika Lundy-Woolfolk at ellundy@iastate.edu for more information.

Watch for upcoming pasture walks and forage programs in your area. If you aren’t already receiving our Growing Beef newsletter sign up at https://go.iastate.edu/UIQJTM or by clicking the QR code.

The IBC at Iowa State University serves as the university’s extension program to cattle producers. Our center comprises a team of faculty and staff from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Veterinary Medicine and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. We work together to develop and deliver the latest in research-based information to improve the profitability and vitality of Iowa’s beef industry. If you’d like to be notified of updates on progress of research projects or programs that might be coming to your area, please subscribe to our “Growing Beef” newsletter by following the link on our website, www.iowabeefcenter.org. If you have a question, use our “Ask our Experts” link. Also, feel free to call us at 515-294-BEEF or email us at beefcenter@iastate.edu. You can follow @iowabeefcenter on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.