There are 7 faculty members in Institute of Ruminant Research include one professors, 3 associate professors. Prof. Li is the director of the Institute of Ruminant Research.

Institute of Ruminant Research is focused on the fundamental and applied research in the area of animal sciences, and puts emphasis on the application of scientific research achievements. Graduate research is organized into the following areas:

1.Nutrient Physiology of Ruminants. The work is to reveal the physiology and molecular mechanism of micro-ecology regulation of digestive tract and subacute ruminal acidosis, early weaning of mutton sheep, beef, etc.

2.Development and Utilization of Unconventional Feed Resources. The major goal is to study the fast analysis detection technology of nutrients in feedstuff resource and evaluation of nutritional value, transformation of crop straw and the waste of agricultural by-product to regeneration feed, which would provide references and lessons for exploiting and utilizing regeneration feed.

3.Breeding Theory and Technology of Mutton Sheep.  The objective is Select Molecular marker of main economic characters in sheep, explore the nutrition regulation techniques to improve the reproductive performance, to introduce the sheep carrying unique feature in performance of meat, reproduction, and wool to the arid and cold areas of northwest china, then cultivate the new varieties which adapted to the environment with high altitude, low temperature, drought, and high soil salinity in western China.

4.Feeding Technology and technic of Mutton Sheep.  This subject is focused on exploring the nutrient requirements and diet formulation of mutton sheep under condition of barn feeding and the grazing management strategies of balanced supply of nutrition throughout the year.

5.Livestock Product Quality and Safety.  The main purpose of this research is to analysis on the current situation of mycotoxins infection in feedstuff resource and milk product, method of quality traceability data acquisition and transmission for mutton processing.

Institute has operated Joint Training Base of Postgraduate Students in Animal science of Gansu Province Co-constructing by Lanzhou University and Gansu Zhongtian sheep industry Co. Ltd. Besides, there are 8 research platforms for experimental teaching at Jinchang, Tianzhu, Minqin, etc.

Over the past five years, Institute faculty members have undertaken 38 research projects, 16 of which are national or provincial key projects, including National Key Technologies R&D Programs, National Natural Science Foundation of China and international collaboration projects.

Due to the excellent performance in animal science, Institute faculty members have a first- and two second-place winner of the Gansu Provincial Scientific and Technological Progress Award. They also have published 1 book and 34 scientific papers, 5 of which were published on the journal including in the secondary level of SCI.