Message from the Dean - November 10, 2025

November 10, 2025

Hello, CALS,

I hope you’ve all had a great weekend, enjoyed the Cyclone football win, and the beautiful snowfall!

This week, we’ll learn about the future of the presidency at Iowa State, and that’s surely the big news we’re all waiting on. President Wintersteen, of our college, has done remarkable work and positioned the university for seamless success going forward. We are all in a terrific place.

Last week, among many things, I had the opportunity to travel to Dunlap (see pic below), Sac City and points in between to meet with alums and friends of the college who are interested in our plans for a new Beef Teaching and Innovation Farm. This will be located on a site in the same section as the current Beef Teaching Farm south of town. A top-notch, new facility will replace an aged one built in the early 1960s. It's definitely time, and the industry is stepping up in a big way to enable us to do this. Terrific, fast work happening on this prospective project!

This week, I am at the annual national meeting of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities in Philadelphia, alongside a good number of people from all across Iowa State and the college. It will be a good set of sessions and discussions to gain further understanding of the state, and changing state, of public higher education in the U.S., and with plenty of focus on colleges of agriculture and related.

We’ll also have on Friday this week the groundbreaking for the BioMADE project at the BioCentury Research Farm. That’ll be a terrific event to launch an incredible new project! This new effort will tremendously advance the BCRF and the outcomes of its operation, under Matt Darr's leadership. BioMADE will complement our existing facilities and units already doing excellent work there, including the:

My best - Dan

Scenes from CALS

A bunch of cattle in the sale ring of a sale barn with five people in the auctioneer booth.
At the Dunlap Livestock Auction watching (and keeping our hands down) with Jason Ross, Sarah Roelfs and alum Bob Butcher ('74 animal science) while visiting western Iowa to generate interest in our planned new Beef Teaching and Innovation Farm. At the Dunlap Auction, we received a great public shout out for the college and the new facility from owner and alum Jon Shaben ('87 animal science), second from left in the pic.
Seeds bursting out of a milkweed plant in a brushy area.
Tis the time of year for milkweed floss! A wonder to watch them float away, dispersing seeds to new areas in the hopes of establishing new plants. And it makes our monarch butterflies feel optimistic about the coming year.