As Texas Tech University enters its second centennial, a wave of excitement and purpose has filled the campus. The Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources is no exception to that higher calling. Davis College leaders agree the college is in a period of growth, and it is time for the next initiative to further the college’s strengths.   

Over the next 10 years, the Davis College is embarking on the Pursuit of Prime, a strategic effort to enhance teaching, research, outreach and engagement to make a positive impact in West Texas and across the globe.    

The future of the Davis College includes ground-breaking research, worldwide impact, and collaborative problem-solving. The college also is working toward growth in student numbers, new facilities, and continuing what the Davis College already does very well.    

Davis College Dean Clint Krehbiel, Ph.D. said the opportunities to make these lasting impacts are present within the Davis College and Lubbock, Texas.   

“If we can generate the next generation of thought leaders around the table and in our workforce, that not only serves West Texas, but serves all of Texas, the U.S., and the world,” Krehbiel said. “We’re really in a unique place with unique people. And it is a great time to be here.”   

Why Prime?  

Momentum for the Pursuit of Prime stemmed from a record-breaking transformational gift to the college. In 2021, Gordon W. Davis, Ph.D., namesake of the Davis College, gifted $44 million to further the work and opportunities available to students.    

Well before the Pursuit of Prime planning phase was launched, Davis said he recognized the college’s commitment to the pursuit of excellence. This was part of what inspired him to give back to the college.    

Davis’s vision for the college as a key donor is largely centered around students. He said he wants to see enrollment numbers grow and student educational opportunities flourish for years to come.    

“My name will be on students’ diplomas, and I take that very seriously,” Davis said. “I want degrees to be better than they were 10 years ago or 20 years ago. I have no interest in mediocrity.”    

For Davis, he said he is excited about the research and the global impact the college is making and will continue to make. Yet, he said his main focus is providing students with a solid foundation before entering the workforce. 

“I’m pretty excited about [students] getting more opportunities,” Davis said. “It’s all about the kids.”    

Krehbiel said the Pursuit of Prime initiative was born out of conversations with Davis that recognized the immense growth opportunity available to the college.   

“[There are] a lot of core areas of strength in the Davis College,” Krehbiel said. “We want to continue to build on that. It really puts a target on a goal that we can achieve, and we can measure how we’re doing relative to achieving those goals in our pursuit of prime.”    

The inspiration for the strategic plan centers around achieving a “prime” caliber. Prime beef is the highest quality cut of meat. For the college, this means serving as an institution that is among the best of the best; a top 10% agriculture college in the nation. With roughly 100 agricultural colleges across the country, the Davis College is aspiring to be among the top 10.     

The college is using the avenues of research, teaching, outreach and engagement to address areas of growth. The Pursuit of Prime plan outlines the desire to achieve sustainable food, fiber, and thriving communities. The plan prioritizes accountability for invested funds to maximize potential impact, while also focusing on building relationships with other colleges at Texas Tech, leveraging external organizations and resources, and striving to be a leading provider of education and workforce development for both West Texas and the nation.   

Darren Hudson, Ph.D., Davis College associate dean for strategic initiatives and assessment, led the development for the overarching concepts for Pursuit of Prime. Within the plan’s overarching topics are four “grand challenges” including water and food security, sustainability and carbon management, climate adaptation and resilience, and animal, plant, and human health.   

 Hudson said these grand challenges pinpoint specific gaps in research and highlight areas where the Davis College can make a difference through collaborative research efforts.    

“We had to define what we’re good at and what we’re capable of doing,” Hudson said. “From that, what we did was identify gaps and key areas for improvement.”   

The goals for Pursuit of Prime are an open door for discovery and collaboration for the Davis College. Krehbiel said the goal was to develop a plan that would encourage individuals within the college to come together to solve problems bigger than one department.    

“We built [Pursuit of Prime] in a way that addresses all of the unique opportunities within our diverse academic departments,” Krehbiel said. “It’s a holistic plan.”   

In the plan’s development phase, Hudson said he recognized universities often fall into isolated thinking and problem-solving tactics. He wanted to see more integrated systems of thinking take place within the college and university through the implementation of this plan.     

“[Pursuit of Prime] creates the incentive for individual faculty to look outside of their own departments to seek expertise in other areas to think about [agricultural] systems,” Hudson said. “It’s a cultural change.”    

Hudson said the problems the Davis College is working to address are multifaceted and require big solutions; solutions that span beyond the expertise of one college. Using the resources readily available for research and learning will be a key contributor to developing big solutions that can make a global impact. 

Beyond Ourselves    

The initiative encourages Davis College departments collaborate with each other, outside organizations and other colleges across Texas Tech to achieve cross-disciplinary problem-solving.    

Departments are already seeking ways to transition into this call for new collaboration. Scott Burris, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications, recognizes the need to push beyond working with individuals within one department.     

“Our ability to actually form these cross-disciplinary teams to address problems – that’s success,” Burris said. “Just forming the team is an indicator of success. Certainly, advancement toward solutions is success. If you come up with new ways to do things that benefit the world in these global issues, that’s a higher level of success.”       

Understanding how to approach issues that span beyond one department or college’s expertise is the next step in becoming a premier institution. Burris said Pursuit of Prime is helping frame a new vision for the challenges the Davis College is working to address.     

 “Today, we are contributors on a global scale,” Burris said. “We’re solving global issues and global problems. So, I think we’ve always been good, but today, I think the quality of the scientists and the research at Texas Tech is positioned to have global impacts.”     

Burris said the immense growth the Davis College has seen since its start 100 years ago creates precedence to do more than ever before. He said the college is recognized across the university as a leader in research, teaching and outreach. 

“With capability comes expectations,” he said. “We are taking steps to live up to those expectations.” 

Pursuit of Prime positions the Davis College to meet those growing expectations over the next 10 years.   

We’re solving global issues and global problems.

Scott Burris, Ph.D.

Natural Laboratory 

The initial phase of Pursuit of Prime focuses on research, and will be followed with teaching, outreach, and engagement. As the college steps into the research phase, there is a focus on integrating the four grand challenges to address local and global issues.    

The motive behind research taking place is important to keep in mind. Krehbiel said there needs to be a greater purpose than just one department; the college is striving to conduct practical research that will have an impact locally and across the globe.     

“It’s important that what we’re doing is relevant to those we serve, whether that’s communities, whether that’s farmers and ranchers,” Krehbiel said. “We need to ensure that our research is being translated and being put to use and that we can measure that it is adding value to our producers in this area and broader than that as well.”    

Leveraging the semi-arid environment Texas Tech is in serves as a vantage point for research. Hudson said using the natural laboratory of West Texas presents the opportunity to highlight the challenges Davis College can address.     

“We live in this laboratory that is so big,” Hudson said. “If you think about the rest of the world or the rest of the country, there are big swaths of the world that are semi-arid, just like we are. Whatever scientific discoveries we can generate have [a global] impact.”    

Many individuals across the Davis College are already leaning into the opportunities provided by the natural laboratory of the West Texas environment while embracing a broader level of thinking. Davis College researchers working at Texas Tech’s Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute are an example of this as they develop sustainable cotton-seed plastic.    

Noureddine Abidi, Ph.D., serves as the managing director at FBRI. Abidi said a large research effort right now is finding a niche market for cotton gin waste, which is largely cotton seeds.    

Abidi said there is still a large amount of discarded cottonseed biomass, which is plant matter left over after processing. FBRI is targeting research to find a biomass solution that will move away from petroleum-based plastics. The goal is to develop a plastic product made from cottonseed lint that is biodegradable in soil.    

“The idea is to get out of using petroleum-based plastics and produce something that can be sustainable, which is really critical for us,” Abidi said. “It’s all about sustainability.”   

This research doesn’t stop at cottonseed plastic. FBRI is focusing on cotton right now, but Abidi said the same science can be used to create plastic products from sorghum, hemp, and forage biomass.    

The creation of this plastic will serve a global need, as it can be used to create plastic products that biodegrade in 60 to 90 days. A few of those products include grocery bags, 3D printer filaments, and latex-free gloves which are beneficial in the medical field.   

The innovative research and discoveries being made at FBRI are one of the many examples of impactful research taking place within the Davis College. While some research takes place in a lab setting, other research is conducted in the outdoor laboratory.   

Richard Stevens, Ph.D., professor of natural resources management, studies bat populations and habitats across Texas. Stevens said bats are an important part of the agricultural ecosystem. In West Texas, bats help manage the cotton boll worm population, which is a harmful pest for cotton producers.   

“If you’ve got a big bat population in the area that’s consuming these cotton boll worm adults, then farmers don’t need to apply nearly as much pesticide for the same effect,” Stevens said. “Bats are providing an ecosystem service to mankind by eating the adult stage of the pest, in this case, the cotton boll worm. They do that for many other insect pests as well.”   

Through recognizing the beneficial impact of bats, Stevens is now focusing his research efforts on supporting bat habitats across the state. Stevens has been working with the Texas Department of Transportation to study bat populations in highway infrastructure. Stevens said TxDOT is making efforts to modify infrastructure to support wildlife; this will in turn benefit Texas’s agriculture industry.    

“That benefits everybody, and [bats] actually have a tangible economic impact,” Stevens said. “That translates to savings for every single Texan. Your cotton shirt there is cheaper because of the assistance bats give us.” 

Stevens’ research targets the “grand challenge” of animal, plant and human health. Recognizing the state-wide impact of environmental factors and bats’ effect on the agriculture industry is a critical step in moving toward the mission of Pursuit of Prime.    

The New Deal Research Farm serves as another example of furthering research with a more first-hand impact on the local region. An ongoing research study to mitigate methane emissions, a common greenhouse gas, in beef cattle production will provide valuable information for local beef cattle producers.   

Kristin Hales, Ph.D., PAS, is an associate professor and Thornton Distinguished Chair in animal science. Hales leads the beef cattle research effort at the New Deal Research Farm.   

Hales and her research team built methane-tracking boxes and waste-capturing systems to capture all methane emissions from cattle based on varying feed intake trials. Hales said feed intake has the greatest effect on methane emissions in beef cattle production. As a result, this study is looking at the effects of restricted feeding that do not negatively affect weight gain or carcass weight.   

Hales said this research is timely given the predictions for the future of the beef industry.   

“With the projection of global demand for meat to double by 2050, beef production must increase to meet future protein demands, while concurrently decreasing the environmental footprint of the beef industry,” Hales said.   

By focusing on beef cattle production methods, Hales said she hopes to see an outcome in decreased methane production for the cattle industry. This research works toward the grand challenges relating to climate adaptation and resilience, as well as animal and human health.   

“Our project will benefit different stakeholders, producers, and the general scientific community,” Hales said.    

Hales’ pioneering new fields of research is one of several examples of how Davis College researchers are making an impact using the natural laboratory of West Texas. Research initiatives in cotton waste, bat populations, and cattle methane emissions are perfect examples of the mission behind Pursuit of Prime.    

What’s to Come  

Research is currently the most tangible application of efforts being made toward this initiative, but there is more on the horizon. Krehbiel said enrollment growth is another key component of becoming a “prime” college.   

 The Davis College wants to work toward enrollment numbers that are comparable to institutions the college aspires to be more like across the nation. Krehbiel said while he wants to see those numbers grow, the growth process should be intentional.    

“The family-like atmosphere, the opportunity to have hands-on experiential learning, those kinds of opportunities, we do not want to lose that,” Krehbiel said. “We don’t want to grow so rapidly that we have to give up things that are true to who we are and our core values.” 

Krehbiel said encompassing a family-like atmosphere, cohesiveness and collaboration among students are values the college does not want to forfeit through student growth. The Davis College holds a reputation for community and high standards.    

While there are many goals outlined for the next 10 years, Krehbiel said he does not want the college to lose sight of the present accomplishments for the sake of checking a box.   

“It’s really about the journey, and not so much about the destination,” Krehbiel said.   

He said he wants to see the college address the future of food, fiber and rural communities in a sustainable way for future generations.   

The Pursuit of Prime sets an expectation for the high caliber of research, teaching and outreach for years to come.    

Pursuit of Prime is an initiative to think differently, work collaboratively, and expand the visibility of the Davis College to foster a better future for agriculture and the world.  

Krehbiel said the timing and current opportunities put the college in a unique position to accomplish world-renowned change.    

 “The time is now, and our time is now,” Krehbiel said. “We have all the right people and resources in place to have a long-lasting impact on the future.”   

Olivia Moore, Lead Writer; Kadyn Collins, Photo Director; Jenne Arrott, Design Coordinator; Kloe Walker, Digital and Advertising Manager

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