When married UW professors Jimena Laporta PhD’14 and Francisco Peñagaricano MS’14, PhD’14 left Uruguay for Wisconsin, they traded one cattle-crazed community for another. Uruguay boasts the world’s highest number of cattle per capita at nearly four beef cows for every one person. (The U.S. has just 0.28, and Wisconsin alone has 0.58.) But what Wisconsin lacks in abundance of cattle per person, it makes up for tenfold in innovation and influence. At the Dairyland’s flagship university, Laporta and Peñagaricano are enhancing the state’s namesake industry and improving the lives of cattle and their caretakers, wherever in the world they roam.
From the UW’s Dairy Cattle Center and the Arlington Agricultural Research Station to local farms and international conferences, Peñagaricano’s research is helping breed more energy-efficient and resilient cows, while Laporta’s research keeps them happy, healthy, and productive for generations to come.
