Animal Production - PhD Research Project Opportunity
| Forage-based Rations | Forage Dairy Systems | Evaluation of Forages | Remote Sensing | Probiotic Fibrolytic Enzymes |
An exciting PhD research opportunities are available within FutureDairy and the Dairy Research Foundation at the University of Sydney!
Forage-based rations for high yielding dairy cows
Title:
Forage-based rations for high yielding dairy cows
Primary Supervisor:
Associate Professor Sergio. C (Yani) Garcia
Additional Supervisor(s):
Dr Md Rafiq Islam; Dr Pietro Celi
Research Location:
Dairy Research Foundation- MC Franklin Lab, Faculty of
Veterinary Science, Camden, The University of Sydney.
Project Summary:
This research opportunity will look at ways of overcoming the nutritional limitations of high-forage based diets as feed sources for high yielding dairy cows.
Project Synopsis:
FutureDairy is a national, industry driven project addressing the challenges Australian dairy farmers will face in the future.
Two of these challenges are:
a) the decreasing availability (an increasing cost) of land and water to produce milk; and
b) the predicted increase in grain cost in the long term (set aside the current context due to the international financial crisis)
Farmers are then looking for options to decrease their reliance on expensive concentrates and produce more milk from home grown feed. FutureDairy is investigating some of these options, including the production of >40t DM/ha using Complementary
Forage Rotations (CFR) and more than 30,000L milk/ha from home grown feed using a combination of CFR and pastures.
The latter is achieved by means of a very high stocking rate (4.5 cows/ha) and moderate milk production/cow (~7,500 L/lactation).
However, some top farmers in Australia are already producing >10,000 L milk/cow/lactation with diets more heavily based on grains and other concentrates. These farmers would be naturally reluctant to use forage-based diets (i.e. less grain) as they believe milk production per cow would decrease.
The extent of such an impact on cows’ performance would strongly depend on factors like forage type and quality, management, combination of forages, stage of lactation etc.
Thus, the present project will develop a research program to investigate these factors and overcome the limitation imposed by whole-forage based diets.
Additional Information/resources:
- The scholarship comprises an annual stipend of $30,000.
- Our research facilities include 2 dairy farms with >500 milking cows: a top of the range conventional dairy farm and the first Automatic Milking System research farm in Australia.
- This opportunity also provides a framework to further develop more specific areas or research such as the impact of forage-based diets on rumen function; rumen microbiology; dynamic modelling or rumen function; rumen physiology; etc.
- We have a vast experience using fistulated ruminants (both cattle and sheep). Our Lab also provides facilities to carry out plant tissue and soil analyses and includes a brand new GC-MS. This equipment can also be used to study specific aspects of rumen fermentation (e.g. volatile fatty acids)
- The scholarships are targeted at Australian and New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents who hold either an Honours or an MSc degree in Agriculture or related area. International students are eligible to apply provided
they have additional financial support to cover international tuition fees (~$27,000/year)
Interested?
- Please send CV and a statement relating your skills/interests specific to this project to:
Associate Professor Yani Garcia - Overseas applicants, please clearly indicate availability of funds and/or institutional support to cover international tuition fees at The University of Sydney.
Download Forage-based rations for high yielding dairy cows (pdf)
Developing sustainable complementary forage dairy systems
Title:
Developing sustainable complementary forage dairy systems
Primary Supervisor:
Associate Professor Sergio C. (Yani) Garcia
Additional Supervisor(s):
Dr Md Rafiq Islam
Research Location:
Dairy Research Foundation- MC Franklin Lab, Faculty of
Veterinary Science, Camden, The University of Sydney.
Project Summary:
This PhD research opportunity will combine modelling and field research approaches to investigate new dairy production systems with the greatest potential to increase on farm
productivity from home-grown feed.
Project Synopsis:
Set aside the present international crisis, the long term trends are for grain availability to be limited and price of grain to be higher due to increased use for human consumption and ethanol production. This would result in higher costs of milk production for those farms that rely more heavily on grain-based concentrates as feed for dairy cows.
An alternative is to produce more feed on farm.
FutureDairy, a national, industry driven program of work, has achieved over 40 t DM/ha/year by means of a Complementary Forage Rotation involving 3 crops/year (CFR, Garcia et al. 2008, Grass and Forage Science, 63:284-300).
We have also combined CFRs with typical pastures into a so called Complementary Forage System (CFS). This system is demonstrating a huge potential to increase total milk production up to about 30,000L/ha from home-grown feed. However, more work needs to be done to account for regional, climatic and systems variations in order to increase the applicability of this technology.
Thus, the focus of this PhD project will be on the development of intensified CFS systems which comprise both CFR’s and high production pastures, to achieve a total forage production beyond the potential of pasture alone. This will also provide a concrete
response to the question of where to from here from top farmers in irrigation regions.
It is envisaged this project will require an innovative research approach that may combine dynamic system modelling with field research and potentially on farm research/survey data.
Additional Information/resources:
- The scholarship comprises an annual stipend of $30,000.
- This project provides a unique opportunity to work in collaboration with other Feedbaserelated projects in Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland.
- The project also provides a framework to further develop more specific areas of research such as impact of forage production on soil characteristics and health; carbon footprint of different forage systems; economic modelling; animal nutrition; etc. There are also opportunities to develop undergraduate (Honours) projects within these areas.
- The group have several PhD students already working in some of the above areas.
- We have experience using a combination of modelling, field research and on farm data as a research approach. Our Lab also provides facilities to carry out plant tissue and soil analyses. Recently we have acquired a top of the range brand new GC-MS.
- FutureDairy scholarships are targeted at Australian and New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents who hold either an Honours or an MSc degree in Agriculture or related area. International students are also eligible to apply provided they have additional financial support to cover international tuition fees (~$27,000/year).
Interested?
- Please send CV and a statement relating your skills/interests specific to this project to:
Associate Professor Yani Garcia - Overseas applicants, please clearly indicate availability of funds and/or institutional support to cover international tuition fees at The University of Sydney.
Download Developing sustainable complementary forage dairy systems (pdf)
Evaluation of complementary forages for the Australian dairy industry
Title:
Evaluation of complementary forages for the Australian dairy industry
Primary Supervisor:
Associate Professor Sergio C. (Yani) Garcia
Associate Supervisor(s):
Dr Md Rafiq Islam; Dr Ajantha Horadagoda
Research Location:
Dairy Research Foundation- MC Franklin Lab, Faculty of
Veterinary Science, Camden, The University of Sydney.
Project Summary:
This PhD research opportunity will use small-plot field studies to test aspects of forage production and quality, cows’ preference and effects on soil characteristics and health of those forage crops with the greatest potential to increase productivity from home-grown feed in Australian dairy farms.
Project Synopsis:
FutureDairy, a national, industry driven program of work, is looking at increasing milk production from home grown feed. Despite the current international crisis, the long term trends are for grain availability to be limited and the price of grain to be higher due to increased use for human consumption and ethanol production. This would result in higher costs of milk production for farms that rely more heavily on grain and concentrates as
feed for dairy cows.
An alternative is to produce more feed on farm. FutureDairy has achieved over 40 t DM/ha/year by means of a Complementary Forage Rotation involving 3 crops/year (CFR, Garcia et al. 20081). We have later combined CFRs with typical pastures into a so called Complementary Forage System (CFS). This system is demonstrating huge potential to increase total milk production up to about 30,000L/ha from home-grown feed.
However, more work needs to be done to evaluate different forage alternatives that make better use of limited resources such as water and nutrients.
Thus, the focus of this agronomic-based PhD project will be on the evaluation of more suitable forages for dairy farms including aspects of water use efficiency, nutrient response, effects on soil and the environment as well as animal preference.
Additional Information/resources:
- The scholarship comprises an annual stipend of $30,000.
- This project provides a unique opportunity to work in collaboration with other Feedbase-related projects in Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland.
- We have a field research set up which includes up to 200 small plots fitted with a totally automated sprinkler-irrigation system.
- In addition we have plenty of irrigated land to conduct grazing studies including evaluations of cows’ preference and animal behaviour.
- Currently there are 3 PhD students in related projects (forage evaluation; CFS and rumen effect of forage diets)
- FutureDairy also offers PhD scholarships in the Precision Farming and Automatic Milking areas.
- All our scholarships target Australian and New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents who hold either an Honours or an MSc degree in Agriculture or related area. International students are also eligible to apply provided they have additional financial support to cover international tuition fees
(~$27,000/year).
Interested?
- Please send CV and a statement relating your skills/interests specific to this project to:
Associate Professor Yani Garcia - Overseas applicants, please clearly indicate availability of funds and/or institutional support to cover international tuition fees at The University of Sydney.
Download Evaluation of complementary forages for the Australian dairy industry (pdf)
Remote sensing of animal function
Title:
Remote sensing of animal function
Primary Supervisor:
Associate Professor Sergio C. (Yani) Garcia
Additional Supervisor(s):
Dr Md Rafiq Islam; Dr Kendra Kerrisk; Dr Ajantha
Horadagoda; Dr Pietro Celi
Research Location:
Dairy Research Foundation- MC Franklin Lab, Faculty of
Veterinary Science, Camden, The University of Sydney.
Project Summary:
Using the latest technologies available for remote sensing of animal function (e.g. internal probes) this PhD opportunity will develop a research program with the overall goal of improving animal health, efficiency of animal production and/or dairy farmers lifestyle.
Project Synopsis:
New technologies are constantly being developed to improve animal production and farms’ efficiency. Some recent developments include internal devices (probes) that are
introduced into the animal via mouth of rumen fistula and are kept in the rumen for relative long period of times. The concept is to monitor some internal parameters (e.g. rumen pH, temperature, pressure, heart rate, rumen motion, etc.) that will give an indication of the health and reproduction status of the animal.
Our ultimate goal is to develop new systems that will assist the farmer in achieving a more efficient management of the herd. The successful candidate will develop a program of work to test one or more devices and determine their applicability and limitations for practical use on farm.
The research will potentially combine the use of rumen fistulated cows with modelling and field work with intact animals.
Additional Information/resources:
- The above opportunity also provides a framework to further develop more specific areas or research such as the impact of forage-based diets on rumen function; rumen microbiology; dynamic modelling or rumen function; rumen physiology; etc.
- Currently there are 3 PhD students in related projects (forage evaluation; CFS and rumen effect of forage diets)
- We have a vast experience using fistulated ruminants (both cattle and sheep). Our Lab also provides facilities to carry out plant tissue and soil analyses.
Recently we have acquired a top of the range brand new GC-MS that will enhance the range of the analyses that we can do including testing of pollutants, contaminants in soil, plant and animal samples, etc. This equipment can also be used to study specific aspects of rumen fermentation (e.g. volatile fatty acids) - FutureDairy offers 2 full PhD scholarships of ~$30,000/yr each in the Feedbase area plus another 2 PhD scholarships in the Precision Farming and Automatic Milking areas.
- The scholarships are targeted at Australian and New Zealand citizens or Australian permanent residents who hold either an Honours or an MSc degree in Agriculture or related area. International students are also eligible to apply provided they have additional financial support to cover international tuition fees (~$27,000/year)
Interested?
- Please send CV and a statement relating your skills/interests specific to this project to:
Associate Professor Yani Garcia sgarcia@usyd.edu.au - Overseas applicants, please clearly indicate availability of funds and/or institutional support to cover international tuition fees at The University of Sydney.
Download Remote sensing of animal function (pdf)
Supplementation of probiotic fibrolytic enzymes to improve the utilisation of fibre by ruminants
Primary Supervisor:
Project Summary
The potency of exogenous cellulolytic enzymes as feed additive of ruminant has also been examined since late 1950s but it did not show any significance in improvement of the efficiency of feed utilization. The failure to obtain a significant improvement of fibre digestion in vivo should not be so surprising.
Since the microbial consortium in the rumen is perfectly evolved in effective degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose, any additional enzymes must be super active and resistant to microbial and digestive proteolytic enzymes. In the recent years, biotechnologies have been greatly developed and active fibrolytic enzymes have been industrially produced. Powerfulness of the newly exploited exogenous cellulase and xylanase encourages one to apply them to improve utilization of fibrous feeds in ruminants.
More Information
For more information and to contact Dr Alex Chaves about this project, please access Research Supervisor Connect Project.