This $180,000 Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) CFDA 10.310 program supports research to evaluate the impacts of providing supplemental protein to pregnant beef cattle grazing low-protein forages. The primary goals are to assess how maternal nutrition during pregnancy affects skeletal muscle development and growth in the offspring, while also supporting the establishment of a well-funded research and teaching laboratory focused on enhancing the longevity, productivity, and success of cow-calf herds. The 3-year project, awarded to North Dakota State University and scheduled to begin on August 15, 2024, will provide protein supplementation to 25 pregnant beef heifers and compare their offspring to a control group of 25 unsupplemented heifers. Researchers will collect and analyze muscle biopsies and growth data from the calves to understand how maternal diet impacts factors like muscle fiber size and composition, collagen content, fat content, and gene expression - variables that influence meat quality attributes like tenderness. The findings will be disseminated to production and scientific audiences through presentations, publications, and outreach activities.