CALES' "beef triangle" connects ranch, range and research

The “beef triangle” links the V Bar V Ranch, the Santa Rita Experimental Range, and the Food Product Safety Lab in Tucson, turning real-world rangelands into living laboratories. It combines herd management, reproductive strategies including artificial insemination, and virtual fencing to track how cattle and rangeland ecosystems respond to management. The continuum follows animals through processing and state-of-the-art food-safety testing, enabling development of value-added beef products, quality assurance, and a full pasture-to-plate pipeline for healthier beef, smarter grazing, and safer food.

Arizona’s cattle industry has been deeply embedded in the state’s economy and cultural identity for more than a century. Like anything that has endured that long, the industry has had to adapt in the face of tough challenges. 

Today’s cattle producers are contending with hotter, drier rangeland conditions, extreme weather events, changing workforce dynamics, and potential biological threats, all while working to produce beef of the highest possible quality. 

The University of Arizona College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences (CALES), Arizona Experiment Station, and Cooperative Extension are working together to support the industry as it adapts to meet the moment. By connecting the V Bar V Ranch, Santa Rita Experimental Range, and the Food Product and Safety Lab in Tucson, Arizona’s “beef triangle” links ranch, range and research – creating a pipeline that spans beef production from pasture to plate.

Thanks to state investment and longstanding partnerships with producers, CALES researchers are studying rangeland and herd management, reproductive strategies and precision feeding, and methods to enhance beef quality and safety; at the same time, CALES students are gaining hands-on skills they’ll need to take the state’s cattle industry into the future. Arizona Experiment Station turns working lands into living laboratories, serving as a testing ground for new technologies and techniques, and Cooperative Extension serves as a hub where ranchers and cattle growers can engage with university science, researchers and one another.

“We want to hit all the core zones – the research, the teaching, and the engagement component,” said Brett Blum, interim director of Arizona Experiment Station. “We have touchpoints through the whole process, from what’s happening with cattle on the landscape and opportunities to use technologies like virtual fencing, all the way through teaching and processing. Bringing together our resources at V Bar V, Santa Rita and the Campus Agricultural Center allows us to unify livestock programming and natural resources under one umbrella.”

Two ranges, one mission

Arizona Experiment Station operates two rangeland facilities: the Santa Rita Experimental Range just south of Tucson, and the V Bar V Ranch, located in Yavapai County along the Mogollon Rim. 

Blum explained that managing both facilities helps university researchers and extension personnel serve cattle producers across the entire state. While Santa Rita is representative of southeastern Arizona, the region differs from much of the rest of the state in climate, watershed types, grass species and density, and ecology. 

“If we want to represent the entire state, we need to understand those other types of rangelands as well,” he said. “That’s where V Bar V comes in. It covers a broad swath of elevations from 3,000 feet to 7,000 feet, so we can work in landscapes that represent the rest of the state that we’d otherwise be missing.”

Thanks to a recent land conveyance from the U.S. Forest Service, the V Bar V headquarters will be able to make necessary investments in facilities and infrastructure. 

“The land conveyance gives us an opportunity to think about V Bar V for the long term,” said Travis Lyons, superintendent of the V Bar V Ranch. “We can make the investments in our headquarters and infrastructure that a working ranch needs, while strengthening its role as a site for research, education and producer engagement. It’s about making sure V Bar V can continue to serve Arizona’s ranching community for generations to come.”

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Virtual fences and conservation cowboys

CALES researchers at both facilities are exploring the potential for virtual fencing, GPS tracking ear tags and other remote sensing technologies to make rangeland management more efficient and sustainable in Arizona and beyond.

Virtual fences are becoming increasingly popular among cattle producers according to Flavie Audoin, a rangeland management specialist with Cooperative Extension. She said that virtual fences allow for flexibility in managing grazing and can reduce dependence on interior physical fences, which can be expensive to build and maintain. 

A 2025 Cooperative Extension analysis estimated the cost of installing five-strand barbed-wire cattle fencing at about $20,000 per mile. Virtual fencing can give ranchers another tool for managing smaller grazing areas without building permanent cross-fencing, while also allowing them to adjust grazing boundaries as conditions change.

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“Without the virtual fence technology, it can take weeks to gather a herd on a forest allotment,” Audoin said. “But with it, you can see where each animal is right on your phone. One of the ranchers I’ve worked with in the past in California said it cut her timeline for gathering her herd from two weeks to five days.”

Jacob Hennig, who specializes in public lands grazing with Cooperative Extension, is currently conducting research to test the efficacy of mobile base stations that could make virtual fence systems more accessible for ranchers who lease federal rangelands like those in Yavapai County.

“At V Bar V, we have a U.S. Forest Service grazing allotment, which can make placing permanent virtual fence base stations complicated,” he said. “We’re also running cattle on really heterogeneous terrain, which can block signals between base stations and the virtual fence collars. We’re experimenting with a mobile base station that can be repositioned as needed.”

For her part, Audoin and her colleagues have developed a virtual fencing cost calculator and a regularly updated comparison table to help producers compare available virtual fencing systems. She’s also working with a virtual fence company to confirm the biometric data collected by their collars, which helps them improve their product.

Audoin said her research shows how the industry is adjusting to new technologies.

“Virtual fencing doesn’t mean we don’t need cowboys or cowgirls anymore,” she said. “You still need boots on the ground, knowledge about rangeland and livestock management. It’s just a different type of cowboy now.”

Next-generation herd management

Animal health and welfare is another topic of research for Audoin. She’s part of a USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service grant investigating how virtual fence collars and GPS tracking ear tags might be able to help ranchers identify early signs of New World screwworm infection.

“We don’t have any cases in Arizona yet, but I will be talking with vets in affected areas to determine certain behaviors associated with infected cows, like excessive head shaking,” she said. 

She’s also working on projects to assess the effects of stress from virtual fence collars on animal welfare and to identify how grazing behavior and utilization of forage may predict weight gain in cows and calves. This could help producers make more informed herd management decisions.

Genetic selection and artificial insemination can also help cattle producers get the most from their herd. Cooperative Extension hosts two artificial insemination clinics at V Bar V Ranch each year.

Christina Brownlee, an assistant professor of practice in the College of Veterinary Medicine, has taught at the V Bar V clinics for the past two years. She said the popular events focus on sharing practical, scientifically sound information with producers, and on giving attendees hands-on practice.

“We want to help producers get good genetics on their farms, to help them meet their goals,” Brownlee said. “Some of these topics can feel intimidating for folks, so events like this give them a chance to have their questions answered and to have experienced professionals coach them.”

Safe, sustainable beef

A distinct advantage of the “beef triangle” is that it gives producers the ability to follow animals from the range through finishing and processing, thanks to the newly renovated Food Product and Safety Lab.

Located at the Campus Agricultural Center near the U of A’s Tucson campus, the facility is USDA inspected and features state-of-the-art equipment for harvesting, processing, food safety testing and quality assurance. The lab serves as a research center, a training ground for students, and a provider of safety testing, nutrition labeling, and meat processing services for local producers. 

The lab allows researchers to test a variety of treatments to increase beef yield and quality, and through a recent state investment, the Campus Agricultural Center will soon house a facility called the “bovisphere,” where scientists will conduct precision feed trials and animal physiology research.

“With the bovisphere, we’ll be able to take a lot of real-time measurements on an individual-animal basis,” said Duane Wulf, an associate professor in the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences. “We can measure an individual animal’s feed and water intake, weight, and methane emissions. We’ll be able to look at genetic and other treatments that could affect or improve those outcomes, giving producers increased production efficiency and helping them improve sustainability.”

Amber Hubbell, the farm manager at the Campus Agricultural Center, said the partnership between the CAC and the Food Product and Safety Lab serves an important teaching function as well.

“Our goal is to give students hands-on experience with the entire beef production cycle, from breeding to calving to finishing and harvest,” she said. “Calves raised at the CAC, along with animals from the V Bar V Ranch, are finished at here before moving to the FPSL for harvest and processing.”

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Training for tomorrow

Workforce development is an essential element to all facets of the beef triangle. Students at all levels of study have opportunities for hands-on training from in all areas of the beef industry, from pasture to plate.

Audoin makes a point of bringing students out to the Santa Rita Experimental Range whenever she plans to deploy virtual fence collars.

“A lot of our ecology, management, and restoration of rangelands students get plenty of experience with vegetation and land management, but they may not have been exposed to livestock,” she said. “If you want to do this kind of work in Arizona, you have to understand how wildlife and livestock interact with the land.”

Infrastructure investments at V Bar V will increase potential experiential learning opportunities in areas like artificial insemination and calving, and students gain skills in food safety and nutrition labeling, as well as harvesting, butchering and processing at the Food Product and Safety Lab. 

“Our students leave our programs ready to work in the real world,” Blum said. “They learn about reproductive strategies, what’s happening with those cattle on the landscape, and how to cut and process meat for sale.”

Veterinary medicine students also benefit from rangeland facilities, where they can work directly with livestock animals and to meet with and hear the concerns of producers.

“My students and I go out to the Santa Rita range frequently to care for the animals on the property, and I always bring students when I go up to V Bar V as well,” Brownlee said. “Livestock veterinarians are few and far between, and having these opportunities for training – and also just to spark interest – is incredibly valuable.” 

All three facilities work together to collaborate on education, research and service, unifying the university’s livestock programming to support Arizona’s cattle industry.

“The beef triangle is a good representation of how we’re fulfilling our mission as a land-grant institution,” Blum said. “Bringing together our resources at the Santa Rita range, V Bar V, and the Campus Agricultural Center is what makes that possible.”