Dr. Robbi H. Pritchard is renowned for his expertise in feedlot nutrition and management. He developed a widely-adopted feedbunk scoring system, helping cattle producers minimize variation in feed intake and optimize production.
He earned his Ph.D. in animal sciences from WSU in 1983. After post-doctoral training at Texas Tech University, he began his career in the Department of Animal and Range Sciences at South Dakota State University in 1984. He was honored as a Distinguished Professor by SDSU in 2005. This award is SDSU’s highest level of distinction, recognizing faculty members who are models of professional accomplishment.
His research focused on nutritional biochemistry and ruminant nutrition. Specific areas of interest included: receiving calf health and nutrition management; anabolic compounds – tissue accretion; manipulation of carcass characteristics; ruminant protein nutrition; feed delivery management; low quality forage utilization; complementarity of dietary cereal grains; and manipulation of ruminal fermentation.
During his career, Dr. Pritchard mentored over 50 graduate students and spoke at more than 150 producer-industry conferences and seminars across the country.
Although Dr. Pritchard has retired from SDSU, he continues to work with the beef cattle industry.