Brown, Billy
Assistant Professor
131 Call Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-7974
brownb@k-state.edu
Area(s) of Specialization
Dairy cattle nutrition
Dairy cattle nutritional physiology
Education
B.S. , Kansas State University, 2010
M.S. , Michigan State University, 2012
Ph.D. , Kansas State University, 2020
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Wisconsin-Madison – 2021-2022
Bio Brief
Billy grew up on his family’s beef and hay operations during their time in Louisiana, Texas, and Kansas. In particular, it was an experience of milking dairy cows at a local dairy during the summer months that piqued his interest in the dairy industry. This lead him to pursue dairy-related activities in youth organizations to continue to fuel his interest. Billy studied animal science with a dairy emphasis at Kansas State University, before completing a Master’s degree in dairy cattle nutrition at Michigan State University. He took a 5-year break from academia to promote Kansas agriculture while working at the Kansas Department of Agriculture. In particular, he worked to expand the state’s burgeoning dairy industry, led beef genetics trade missions to Latin America, and aided general agribusiness in establishing and growing within Kansas. Next, Billy completed a doctoral program in dairy cattle nutrition at KSU, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During all of his training, Billy broadly studied mechanisms of feed intake regulation, feeding behavior, and feed intake prediction modeling in lactating cows, in addition to applied studies in feed and forage quality, calf developmental programming, and dairy cattle nutrition.
Joining the faculty at KSU in 2022, Billy has a 60% teaching, 40% research appointment. He will be responsible for teaching introductory dairy and general nutrition courses. His research program will focus on dairy cattle nutritional physiology, with a particular interest in elucidating mechanisms contributing to variation in nutrient utilization and feed intake regulation in lactating dairy cows and development programming in calves. Billy and his wife, Jordan, live in Wamego.