Woody Lane is a nationally known expert on pasture management, sheep and beef cattle nutrition, and grazing techniques. His passion for sharing his knowledge comes across in all he does, including his writing. Laypeople who have read this work on forages say they will never look at a field the same way again.

Earlier, he published a book on nutrition, From The Feed Trough—Essays and Insights on Livestock Nutrition in a Complex World. That book and this one are compilations of his monthly column “From The Feed Trough…” for The Shepherd magazine. He has published hundreds of popular articles and fact sheets on cattle and sheep production and grazing, and he has also written more than twenty-five research articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Woody earned his PhD and MS degrees in animal nutrition from Cornell University. He now owns and operates Lane Livestock Services, an independent consulting firm based in Roseburg, Oregon. He can’t look at a field without wanting to improve it. Woody enjoys public speaking, and he has often been featured in many of the top workshops and conferences across the United States and Canada. He also teaches practical courses on forage management and livestock nutrition. In addition, he facilitates three innovative forage discussion groups for farmers and ranchers in Oregon.

Originally from New York, Woody’s interest in livestock management stems from two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sarawak, Malaysia and then six months working on farms in New Zealand. In the 1970s, he worked on the well-known Allegheny Highlands Project in West Virginia. This project, which delivered information to farmers to promote rural development, was the groundbreaking prototype for the Integrated Resource Management programs that are used throughout the livestock world today. Woody joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in the 1980s as the State Sheep and Beef Cattle Extension Specialist.

He and his wife, Jeri Frank, migrated to western Oregon in 1990When he is not working with livestock and pastures, Woody enjoys dancing and calling contra dances and square dances. But that, as they say, is a very different field altogether