Animal and Range Sciences Graduate at Montana State University
The Animal and Range Sciences Department offers a Master of Science degree in “Animal & Range Sciences” and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in “Animal & Range Sciences”. Both the MS and PhD degrees require that the student choose either an Animal Science emphasis or a Range Science emphasis.
Degree requirements for M.S. and Ph.D. programs
Animal Science Emphasis
Graduate students in the Animal Science emphasis receive broad based training resulting in experiences that qualify them for many agricultural jobs. Areas of emphasis include nutrition, breeding and genetics, physiology, production systems, and meat science/muscle growth. Research problems may involve beef cattle, sheep and biochemical or other properties of agricultural products. Supporting course work may be taken from Animal Science, Range Science, Biology, Wildlife Management, Biochemistry, Statistics, Plant Sciences, Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, and Economics.
Research laboratories are available in the department and specialized equipment is also available through cooperation with other departments.
The department conducts cooperative research with the U.S. Livestock and Range Research Station at Miles City, Montana, and the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station at Dubois, Idaho. Facilities for the maintenance of beef cattle and sheep are available at the Red Bluff Research Ranch, 30 miles west of Bozeman, the Fort Ellis Research Center, near Bozeman, and the Northern Agricultural Research Center at Havre. The main station has facilities for sheep, horses and beef cattle (a cattle feedlot and nutrition laboratory). A wool laboratory is located on campus.
Range Science Emphasis
Research and training opportunities in the Range Science programs are diverse, and students with a wide variety of backgrounds, goals, and educational needs are accepted. Major areas of study are range ecology, habitat management, watershed management, grazing management, monitoring, riparian ecosystems, measurements, and plant-animal (livestock and wildlife) interactions. A graduate degree in range science prepares for careers in rangeland management, wildlife management, habitat management, natural resource conservation and restoration, research, land-use planning, and consultation. Research facilities include the Red Bluff Research Ranch, several research centers of the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, U.S. Livestock and Range Research Station at Miles City, Montana, and the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station at Dubois, Idaho. Cooperative projects with ranchers and federal and state agencies are also conducted. Supporting courses at the graduate level include botany, wildlife biology and management, soils, animal science, earth science, plant science, statistics and biochemistry.
Please feel free to contact any advisors whose research may interest you.
Interdisciplinary M.S. Degree in Land Rehabilitation
Animal and Range Sciences participates with the interdisciplinary M.S. Program in Land Rehabilitation. The program offers advanced study in rehabilitation of disturbed lands. Site revegetation, soil remediation, riparian zone restoration, stream channel restoration, investigation of impacted geologic resources and remediation of contaminated sites are included in areas of study. Emphasis is placed on developing a broad understanding of soil, plant, and hydrologic processes. Students may focus in a subject area of direct importance to land rehabilitation, such as plant ecology, soil sciences, hydrology, geology, geography, biology, or range science.
The M.S. degree in Land Rehabilitation is offered through each of the following departments: Animal and Range Sciences; Biology; Civil (Bio-resource) Engineering; Earth Sciences, and Land Resources and Environmental Sciences. Please refer to College of Agriculture, where a more detailed program description can be found.