Francis Fluharty

Dr. Francis L. Fluharty, head of the Animal and Dairy Science Department at the University of Georgia, came to UGA in May 2018. He was raised on a cow-calf and stocker operation in Eastern Ohio. He had a 35-year career at The Ohio State University (OSU) prior to coming to UGA. In 1982, after receiving his bachelor’s degree from OSU, he was hired to manage the OSU research feedlot in Wooster, Ohio, and he completed his graduate degrees while being a full-time feedlot manager. After completing his PhD., in 1993, he joined the faculty of the Animal Sciences Department, and from 1999 through 2018, has served as Coordinator of the Ohio Beef Industry Center at The Ohio State University. In this role, he coordinated Extension, research, and educational activities affecting Ohio’s beef industry. Dr. Fluharty has obtaining over $7.7 million in grant funds from both private and public entities, and facilitated multidisciplinary research and outreach education programs that link agriculture with consumers.

His primary research interests are determining the effects of energy and protein intake on animal growth, fat deposition and carcass composition, and the nutritional requirements of stressed cattle, especially as they relate to rumen function. In addition to his research, Dr. Fluharty taught Beef Production for 20 years at OSU, and collaborated in a team-taught course on Branded Food Products in the marketplace. He oversaw the development of an all-natural branded beef program, Ohio Signature Beef™, which was based on Angus genetics, and he developed the production and management protocols for Sakura Wagyu Farms and acts as their consulting nutritionist, overseeing diet formulations based on each farm’s feedstuffs and capabilities. He is the author of over 220 scientific and Extension publications regarding ruminant nutrition and cattle growth including over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 73 abstracts, and 80 proceedings, popular press, web-based materials, and research reports. He has worked with agriculturally-based economic development in the U.S. and South America and consulted in feedlot nutrition and management, and forage-based production systems throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, England, France, and Italy, and has given 90 international invited talks as well as 77 invited talks in the United States. Dr. Fluharty has devoted his career to improving economic opportunities for farm and ranch families through improved management information.