As a result of an article in our Summer 2025 Newsletter, I received the following email from Dr. Dayton Steelman. I will tell you more about Dr. Steelman after you read his email.
I am 86 years old, and it makes me smile when I read that you continue to evaluate and score your bulls for Horn Fly Resistance, along with all of your other selection traits. As you know, our research showed that bulls with Fly Resistance pass those genetics on to their offspring. Therefore, if you keep replacement heifers out of Fly Resistant bulls, you will quickly reduce the Horn Fly Population in your entire herd.
Dr. Dayton Steelman is a retired Professor of Veterinary Entomology at the University of Arkansas. He knows more about horn flies and horn fly resistance than anyone else in the world. Steelman studied horn flies and their effect on beef cattle for 26 years.
His early research was centered around controlling horn flies with chemicals. Eventually, he realized that not all cows are created equal. While most beef animals suffer greatly from blood-sucking horn flies, some animals have a genetic resistance to horn flies.
When Dayton took a genetic approach to solving the horn fly problem, he never received another dollar in research funding. That’s one of the biggest problems with our land-grant universities. For the most part, the only research projects that receive funding are those sponsored by one of the gigantic chemical and/or pharmaceutical companies.
In December of 2022, Jared Luhman interviewed Dayton Steelman for a podcast. Last weekend, I listened to this podcast for the second time – and I’m glad I did! In addition to being very educational and informational, it is entertaining! Click below to listen. You’ll be glad you did.