Before joining WestFeeds, she was a research scientist at Montana State University for more than 20 years. She researched cereal forage development, beef cattle feedlot and backgrounding, and studied sheep nutrition, spending a significant amount of time on cattle backgrounding. "Backgrounding is a means of economically adding value to calves and increasing profit by using an inexpensive feed such as home-grown grains and forages to increase growth and weight gain prior to entering a feedlot. Backgrounding allows retained ownership of calves past weaning (when prices may be higher later), and allows lightweight or later born calves to add weight before marketing. A backgrounding program allows for skeletal and muscle development and adds a higher potential for compensatory gain," she says.