Dr. Dan Kniffen joined The Dairy and Animal Science Department at Penn State University in 2001 as member of the Extension Outreach team. His primary responsibility is in the area of Beef cattle. Since joining the faculty at Penn State his teaching responsibilities have expanded to include: Beef Production, Advanced Beef Production, Livestock Evaluation and Advanced Livestock Evaluation. Dr. Kniffen has a long academic and production background with livestock enterprises. He has spent a considerable amount of time focusing on cost-of-production and production efficiency issues. Dan completed his graduate studies at West Virginia University studying both reproduction and cost-of-production. Upon completion he went to Colorado State University where he worked on a Post-Doc for a short time. He joined the National Cattlemen's Association as Director of Producer Programs in the early '90s. His main focus was the IRM program. In that capacity he had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects. He also worked on the Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA) program and a resource-monitoring manual. Dan returned to CSU and their extension team as the Livestock Specialist in Weld County. Kniffen was active in both 4-H and FFA. He participated on livestock judging teams in both organizations as well as during his collegiate career. Dan as an undergraduate was active with the Block and Bridle Club at West Virginia. Kniffen served as the graduate advisor to the Dairy Science Club while studying at West Virginia. Dan's office is located in 320 ASI Building. He can be reached by email, dmk28@psu.edu or by phone, 814-865-7809.