ARPAS will sponsor a symposium titled “Nutrition Models—Where Are We Going in the Next Decade” at the 2010 ADSA-ASAS meetings to be held in July 2010 in Denver, Colorado. Dairy and beef models are used every day in the feed manufacturing industry, nutrition business, and research. Significant progress has been made with research in several of these areas since the NRC Nutrient Requirements for Beef Cattle (1996) and Dairy Cattle (2001) were released.

The ARPAS Symposium is an extension of ideas from the informal Animal Science Modeler’s Group that is held every year on the Saturday before the ADSA-ASAS meetings. This symposium will address research and field models and provide a timely update for nutritionists in academia and industry.

The planned three-hour symposium will address the following topics:
• The roles of models in animal nutrition
• Nitrogen recycling in ruminants
• The variable efficiencies in postabsorptive amino acid utilization
• VFA production and absorption and effect on energy availability
• Predicting dry matter intake responses
• Comparisons of models with whole animal calorimetry


ARPAS and the Ruminant Symposium Committee are seeking sponsors to support speakers who are not ADSA or ASAS members and international invited speakers. The ARPAS annual business meeting will precede the symposium.