Dr. Matt Spangler joined the Department of Animal Science as an Assistant Professor in 2008 and has served as a Professor of Animal Science since 2018. He has also served as a Beef Genetics Extension Specialist since 2008.

Education

Ph.D., The University of Georgia, 2006
M.S., Iowa State University, 2003
B.S., Kansas State University, 2001
A.S., Butler County Community College, 1999

Teaching

ASCI 456: Beef Cattle Merchandising
Summary: Develop skills to merchandise breeding cattle including advertising, genetic and phenotype selection, data collection, and conducting a bull sale. Students in the class are responsible for planning and conducting the annual UNL bull sale.

ASCI 865: History and Perspectives in Animal Breeding Programs
Summary: Historical perspective to the discipline of animal breeding and genetics. Introduction to the contributions of geneticists who have significantly impacted the discipline. Material includes pre-recorded interviews of scientists that have had an international impact in animal breeding and genetics. Critique key papers.

ASCI 933: Linear Models and Genetic Prediction
Summary: Evaluation of methods for developing and exploiting genetic diversity among animal populations to improve bio-economic efficiency of animal production.

Research

My research focuses on the Quantitative Genetics/Genomics in livestock.

Extension

The focus of my extension programming revolves around genetic selection tools and methods in beef cattle.

Selected Publications

• Russell, Chad A., Larry A. Kuehn, Warren M. Snelling, Stephen D. Kachman, and Matthew L. Spangler. 2023. Variance component estimates for growth traits in beef cattle using selected variants from imputed low-pass sequence data. J. Anim. Sci doi: 10.1093/jas/skad274
• Ribeiro, Andre M.F., Leticia P. Sanglard, Hiruni R. Wijesena, Daniel C. Ciobanu, Steve Horvath, and Matthew L. Spangler. 2022. ¬DNA methylation profile in beef cattle is influenced by additive genetics and age. Sci. Reports 12:12016. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-16350-9 
• Ribeiro, André Mauric F., Leticia P. Sanglard, Warren M. Snelling, R. Mark Thallman, Larry A. Kuehn, and Matthew L. Spangler. 2022. Genetic parameters, heterosis, and breed effects for body condition score and mature cow weight in beef cattle. J. Anim. Sci. 100:skac017. doi: 10.1093/jas/skac017.
• See, Garrett M., Benny E. Mote, and Matthew L. Spangler. 2021. Selective genotyping and phenotypic data inclusion strategies of crossbred progeny for combined crossbred and purebred selection in swine breeding. J. Anim. Sci. 99: doi:10.1093/jas/skab041
• Ribeiro, Andre, Bruce L. Golden, and Matthew L. Spangler. 2021. Categorization of birth weight phenotypes for inclusion in genetic evaluations using a Deep Neural Network. J. Anim. Sci. 99: skab053. doi: 10.1093/jas/skab053. 
• Waseem Abbas, Jeremy T. Howard, Henry A. Paz, Kristin E. Hales, James E. Wells, Larry A. Kuehn, Galen E. Erickson, Matthew L. Spangler , and Samodha C. Fernando. 2020. Influence of host genetics in shaping the rumen bacterial community in beef cattle. Sci. Report. 10: 15101.