Brady Campbell named small ruminant specialist at Ohio State

Writer(s): 
Brady Campbell

COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University Department of Animal Sciences has hired Brady Campbell as an assistant professor to focus on small ruminant management.

Campbell begins his new position on September 15 in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).

He will work with Ohio State Extension professionals to develop educational materials and programs for sheep and goat producers.

In addition, he will conduct applied research on small ruminant production and management and assist with youth livestock sheep and goat programs. 

“Brady will fill an important role for our department and the state. Ohio is the largest sheep production state east of the Mississippi,” said John Foltz, chair of the animal sciences department. “Lamb and goat production are on the rise in Ohio due to a variety of factors, including increased consumption in restaurants and increased ethnic populations in the state.”

He continued, “As we educate undergraduate students who are increasingly from urban backgrounds, they can more easily work with small ruminants. They are safer for the students to handle than larger species, such as cattle or horses.” 

Campbell is a Waterford, Ohio native and a 4th-generation sheep and swine producer. His family raises purebred Lincoln and Texel sheep, as well as crossbred sheep and commercial swine in southeastern Ohio’s Washington County.

He completed three degrees within the Department of Animal Sciences at The Ohio State University including a 2015 bachelor’s with a bioscience specialization, a 2017 master’s, and a 2021 Ph.D. In addition, since 2016 he has served as the program coordinator of the Ohio State Sheep Team.

Campbell’s previous research focused on alternative management strategies to improve the growth and health of pasture-reared lambs and to reduce the economic losses resulting from gastrointestinal parasitic infection. Moving forward he intends to continue investigating alternative forage-based small ruminant production systems.

“Ohio sheep and wool producers, along with those that raise related species, are excited about working with Dr. Campbell in his new role,” said Roger High, executive director of the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association.

One way they may be working with him involves his ideas for implementing and adopting technologies new to small ruminant stakeholders, such as remote data collection devices, radio frequency identification, and ultrasound.

According to Campbell, these technologies can serve as an additional “farm hand” in either detecting the early onset of disease or identifying superior individuals within a flock or herd, thus reducing animal production losses with fewer labor inputs and improving system efficiency.

“Being an Ohio native and sheep producer myself, I am intimately familiar with the excitement and hardships of livestock production,” Campbell said. “Now as a faculty member, it is my time to give back to the university that helped mold me into the person I am today, as well as help others, both students and producers, become more efficient, productive, and sustainable in their production systems.”

Learn more about Campbell and other new faculty members in Ohio State’s CFAES here: https://cfaesfacultyandstaff.osu.edu/news/get-know-our-new-cfaes-faculty

Writer(s): 
Sherrie R. Whaley
614-292-2137
For more information, contact: 

John Foltz
foltz.75@osu.edu