Robert Wells, Ph.D.

Wells serves as a livestock consultant in the producer relations program. He joined the consultation program in 2005. His areas of emphasis include: forage-based beef cattle production and cow/calf nutrition, herd health programs, improving herd genetics, and value-added calf programs.

He is also the executive director for the Integrity Beef Alliance, a marketing alliance of producers in North Texas and Oklahoma that produces high quality value-added calves for the feeder market and replacement quality females. The cattle in this program typically sell for premiums that average greater than 10 percent more than the current market.

Prior to working for the Noble Research Institute, Wells was the assistant general manager and operations manager for two years of the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show and Rodeo, Inc., a major livestock show in South Texas.

Before that, he was the beef cattle research coordinator and rodeo team coach for more than seven years at the University of Illinois. His responsibilities included coordinating three research stations with a combined 1,000-head of cows and feedlot capacity of 1,500 head. He was involved in the cattle management and the research projects on the cow herd and all feeder cattle from conception to birth and negotiated grid contracts at the packer level.

Wells was born and grew up in South Texas, where he was heavily involved with raising and showing beef cattle from an early age. He enjoys spending time with family, typically at horse shows or working side-by-side with family on projects at any one of the family properties.