Department of Animal Science
2153 Meyer Hall
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 752-5650
jwoltjen@ucdavis.edu
Biography
James W. Oltjen is University of California Cooperative Extension Animal Management Systems Specialist. Jim was raised on a mixed crop-livestock farm in Kansas. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Kansas State University and the Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, in 1983. He was a faculty member in the Animal Science Department at Oklahoma State University from 1983-1990 before joining UC in 1990. Dr. Oltjen’s efforts are mostly in animal enterprise management, natural resource and beef cattle modeling, and livestock quality assurance programs. His current research projects include feedlot performance prediction to improve efficiency and reduce variation in beef production, improved grazing and supplementation strategies for beef cow herds, herd management modeling, and cost/benefit of animal identification. He continues to work with New Zealand, Brazilian, French, and Australian researchers to improve growth and composition models for sheep and beef cattle, and Spanish workers on animal identification. Within California he is technical advisor to the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association. With the California Cattlemen's Association and the California Beef Council, he developed and implemented a successful Quality Assurance Program to ensure beef safety by working with the state’s cow-calf producers and feedlots; advanced curriculums in animal health, genetics, residue avoidance, HAACP, and reproduction have been developed. He is a past-president of the Western Section American Society of Animal Science and received their Extension Award in 1997. He has served as chair of the ASAS Publications Committte, and was chair or cochair of the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Animal Science in 2005-2007. He received the ASAS Extension Award in 2003. Jim was recently on the ASAS Strategic Planning Committee, and was President in 2010.
Education
Specialty
Computer decision support software; beef quality assurance; standardized performance analysis for cattle and sheep ranches. Animal management systems; resource use in animal agriculture; beef cattle growth.Areas of Expertise (click to see all ANR academics with this expertise)
- Ag Commodities and Products - Other
- Animal Commodities and Products - General
- Livestock and Dairy
- Livestock and Dairy - General
- Beef Cattle / Beef / Other Cattle Prod
- Dairy Cattle / Milk / Other Dairy Prod
- Sheep, Sheep Meat and Wool
- Pasture
- Pasture, General
- Pasture, Dryland and Seeded
- Pasture - Irrigated
- Water
- Range
- Animals and Their Systems
- Animal Welfare/Well-Being and Protection
- Reproductive Performance of Animals
- Nutrient Utilization in Animals
- Animal Physiological Processes
- Animal Management Systems
- Improved Animal Products (Before Harvest)
- Food and Non-Food Products: Development, Processing, Quality, and Delivery
- New and Improved Food Processing Technologies
- Human Nutrition, Food Safety, and Human Health and Well-Being
- Protect Food From Contamination By Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins
- Families, Youth, and Communities
- Economics of Agricultural Production and Farm Management
- Agriculture
- Commercial
- Organic
- Small Farms
- Water Quality, Quantity, and Security
ANR Workgroup Associations
- Livestock Production Systems - Chair
- Beef Safety and Quality Assurance - Member
- Dairy Quality Assurance - Member
- Sheep and Goat Herd Health and Production - Member
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