Each year, the American Society of Animal Science bestows awards to exemplary members at its annual meeting. This year, three University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment animal scientists received prestigious awards.

Gregg Rentfrow,  UK Department of Animal and Food Science extension meat science professor, received the ASAS Animal Industry Innovation Award. The award recognizes an individual who has shown excellence in developing applied technologies that enhance animal production. Rentfrow has more than 35 years of meat industry experience. His multidisciplinary program is critical to enhancing the economic competitiveness of animal and meat industries in the United States. He has conducted extension activities in 42 states and his carcass fabrication videos on YouTube are very popular, with more than two million views. Rentfrow earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri.

Among Rentfrow’s many awards are the 2020 American Meat Science Association Distinguished Extension Award, 2019 ASAS Southern Section Extension Award, 2017 M.D. Whiteker Award for Excellence in Extension, Kentucky Association of State Extension Professionals, 2014 ASAS Midwest Section Outstanding Young Extension Specialist Award and the 2011 Outstanding Service to Kentucky’s Beef Industry Award.

Jeff Lehmkuhler,  UK Department of Animal and Food Sciences extension professor, received the ASAS Extension Award.

The award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding and noteworthy contributions in animal science extension. Lehmkuhler, a native of southern Indiana, came to UK in 2008 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he had served on faculty since 2001. He is internationally recognized for programming that has spanned five countries and covered a diverse range of ruminant production from dairy steers to yaks. His external funding exceeds $6 million and he has authored more than 125 newsletter and popular press articles, 66 abstracts and journal articles and 46 proceedings and extension publications. Lehmkuhler earned a master’s degree in silvopastoral systems from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in beef cattle nutrition from the University of Missouri.   

Lehmkuhler has received many awards including the 2004 Agri-Communicator Award, 2016 ASAS Southern Region Extension Award and the 2021 M.D. Whiteker Award for Excellence in Extension, Kentucky Association of State Extension Professionals Extension.

Ronald J. Trotta recently earned a Ph.D. from the UK Department of Animal and Food Sciences. He received the ASAS Wetteman Graduate Scholar in Physiology Award. The award recognizes an individual who has shown outstanding achievement as a young scholar working in the research areas of physiology, endocrinology and/or reproduction. Trotta previously completed a bachelor’s degree in animal science at UK and a master’s degree in nutritional physiology from North Dakota State University. Currently, he is working as a postdoctoral scholar with UK animal scientists David Harmon and James Klotz, at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Forage-Animal Production Research Unit to identify cellular and molecular mechanisms of serotonin-mediated vasoconstriction and vasodilation in cattle. Trotta has been a co-investigator on seven research grants and has published 18 peer-reviewed journal articles, seven conference proceedings and 15 abstracts.

Trotta has received many awards, including the 2022 ASAS National Young Scholar Award, 2022 ASAS Wilson G. Pond International Travel Award, 2022 UK Animal and Food Sciences Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award, 2021 Certified Angus Beef Graduate Colvin Scholarship and the 2018 Alltech Young Scientist North American Undergraduate Award.