Graduate Research Assistant
Kansas State University
Payton is originally from Nevada, Missouri where he grew up on a diversified livestock farm and was involved in 4-H and FFA. Payton completed his undergraduate degree in Animal Science at Kansas State University in 2019 and was actively involved in undergraduate research and livestock judging. Payton graduated with his master's in Animal Science from K-State, focused in swine nutrition, in 2020 under the supervision of Dr. Cassandra Jones. Currently, he is working on his PhD at Kansas State. Payton's research has consisted of studying antibiotic alternatives in nursery pig diets. As a part of both his MS and PhD programs, he has served as the assistant livestock judging coach and helped coordinate the undergraduate research program, instructing the course-based resarch experience for students interested in nutrition research across species.