Animal Science Department

Marc Horney teaches courses in Rangeland Resource Management, as well as Undergraduate Seminar (ASCI363/463) and livestock production.

Marc earned his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in ruminant nutrition while working on a combined beef production/rangeland ecology research project in the Nebraska Sandhills. He earned his MS in animal science (ruminant nutrition), with a minor in range management, from Oregon State University. Marc is a Cal Poly-SLO alumnus, earning his BS in animal science here, with minors in philosophy and in speech communication.

Before coming on faculty at Cal Poly, Marc worked as a Cooperative Extension agriculture/4-H Youth agent for Colorado State University (El Paso County), as  a Cooperative Extension livestock/natural resources advisor for the University of California (Colusa, Glenn & Tehama Counties), as a lecturer in the College of Agriculture at CSU Chico, as a rangeland management specialist for the USDA-NRCS – first assigned to the Klamath Basin Watershed Team, and then as the rangeland specialist for NRCS Area 1 (northern California). Marc has worked extensively as a technical consultant to ranch owners and operators, federal/state/county government agencies, community organizations, and non-profit farming and conservation groups. His research work has spanned animal nutrition and management, weed ecology, geospatial technology applications (GPS/GIS/remote sensing), oak woodland management. His projects have included work on vernal pools, annual and perennial grasslands, groundwater monitoring, inventory and management of sage-grouse and deer habitats, ranch planning, rangeland water quality, vegetation mapping and inventory, and technical assistance to Fire Safe Council and Weed Management Area group efforts. He continues to support the teaching of animal husbandry skills to youth and adult leaders through a [county fair] project animal production and educational system that he developed. He is an active member of the California-Pacific Section of the Society for Range Management (Cal-Pac SRM), is currently serving as a public member of the California Board of Forestry’s Rangeland Management Advisory Committee, and, since 2004, has been the director for the California Range Camp, a natural resources summer science camp for high school students organized and hosted by Cal-Pac SRM.