Zoe Curry, a senior animal science major in the Department of Animal & Food Sciences at Texas Tech, has received a first place finish in the agriculture category of the 2026 Undergraduate Research Awards Competition hosted by the university’s Center for Transformative Undergraduate Experiences. The competition, among the nation’s largest undergraduate research forums, recognizes exceptional student scholarship across 10 disciplines.
Zoe Curry’s explored how mineral supplementation sources (inorganic vs. complexed forms) influences nutrient absorption in beef cattle during distinct feeding stages.
Curry’s honor, the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance Outstanding Presenter Award, was formally presented April 23 at the Texas Tech Museum.
Her research, with the technical title “Using cattle apparent total tract digestibility to unveil potential positive effects triggered by additional dietary zinc supplementation,” explored how mineral supplementation sources (inorganic vs. complexed forms) influences nutrient absorption in beef cattle during distinct feeding stages.
Working with a group of 90 steers in a randomized complete block design, Curry examined how varying zinc sources affected apparent total tract digestibility; a key measure of how efficiently animals extract nutrients from feed. The study tracked cattle through three phases of feedlot development, offering insight into how timing and composition of supplementation can shape outcomes. By unveiled systemic effects of feeding technologies (such as complexed minerals) and discovering feeding strategies (phase-feeding rather than simply every single day) future recommendations for applied studies and the industry can be developed.
Zoe’s findings suggest that supplementing beef cattle finishing diets with a complex zinc-methionine compound improved nutrient digestibility during the early and late stages of feeding. These are the major two stressful moments of cattle feeding within feedlot settings (initial and final 35 days on feed). During the intermittent phase (within the full heat of the summer), animals under the control treatment reduced their intake, while those receiving the mineral complexed technology continued eating a progressive amount of feed.
Such a greater intake observed animals consuming the complexed mineral induced a smaller diet digestibility within the intermittent phase. It is important to highlight that it is up to most importance to be capable to maintain diet intake on young animals (calf-fed system) specially under weather challenging conditions (summertime in the Texas Panhandle). Zoe’s research unveils trade-offs between the relationship on intake and nutrient utilization.
Curry conducted her research under the mentorship of Jhones Sarturi, whose research program focus on ruminant nutrition. Sarturi, an associate professor specializing in beef cattle nutrition and metabolism, focuses on the digestive physiology of ruminants and the optimization of feed resources. His work examines how cattle convert forages, grains and agricultural byproducts into usable nutrients, often using both in vivo and in vitro models to unveil the mechanism of action of feeding technologies.
“We work to enhance production efficiency while promoting resilient practices,” Sarturi said. “Using models that range from in vivo to in vitro, we evaluate feeding technologies before and after animal consumption to unveil their mechanisms of action and propose novel strategies for their use.” He is a veterinarian and joined Texas Tech in 2013 following research appointments with Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Amarillo and doctoral studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he specialized in ruminant nutrition.
CONTACT: Jhones O. Sarturi, Associate Professor, Department of Animal & Food Sciences, Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-4926 or j.sarturi@ttu.edu
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