Herring was raised on a cattle and sheep ranch near Talpa, Texas, in Coleman and Runnels counties. He received a bachelor's in animal science from Tarleton State University in 1988, a master's in animal breeding from Texas A&M University in 1991, and a doctorate in genetics from Texas A&M University in 1994. Herring came to our department from Texas Tech University, where he was a faculty member in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences.

Herring has teaching, research and Extension responsibilities within the department. He teaches undergraduate and graduate level classes in beef cattle production and management (ANSC 406 and 605). His research interests focus on areas to increase production efficiency for cow-calf producers through coordination of breeding systems, environmental resources and marketing strategies. He has researched genetic and environmental influences on milk production in beef cows, breed differences for feedlot and carcass characteristics and pasture utilization of cattle through use of GPS/GIS technology.

Herring enjoys training undergraduate and graduate students and uses of a wide variety of teaching techniques. He has trained or co-trained 3 Ph.D. students, 12 M.S. students and 4 M.Ag. students. He received the Teacher Fellow Award from the National Association of Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (1998), the Outstanding Young Scientist Award for Education from the Southern Section of the American Society of Animal Science (2000), and Teacher of the Semester Award (Fall,1998 and Spring 2002) from the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources at Texas Tech University.