2012 Research Opportunities - PRODUCTION

Postgraduate Scholarship in Animal Reproduction

A full-time postgraduate scholarship is available for a suitably qualified candidate with a good honours degree in animal or veterinary science or equivalent to undertake research studies leading to a PhD in animal reproduction. The RIRDC funded project is to develop an effective diluent for the transport of rabbit semen to enable the widespread use of artificial insemination within the Australian farmed rabbit industry. The project will involve extensive interaction with farmed rabbit producers through commercial field fertility trials and industry extension activities.

ELIGIBILITY: Applicants should have a particular interest in sperm physiology and applied andrology. Experience in animal handling as well as semen collection, processing and assessment is highly desirable. Applicants must be Australian citizens or Australian permanent residents.

The scholarship is valued at $22,860 per annum (tax exempt) and may be renewed for up to three years, subject to satisfactory progress.

Further information:
Dr Roslyn Bathgate, Faculty of Veterinary Science (B19), The University of Sydney NSW 2006 (Phone: 02 9351 5830; Fax: 02 9351 3957 E-mail:). Applications should be sent direct to Dr Bathgate at the above address and should include a curriculum vitae, a copy of an academic transcript, and the names and contact details of at least two referees.

Impact of Automatic Milking Systems (AMS) on labour and lifestyle on commercial farms

AMS is being increasingly adopted on commercial farms throughout Australia. Farmers considering the adopting the technology would benefit from understanding the potential impact of the AMS on labour and lifestyle whilst they are in the decision-making phase. The project will involve data collection on up to 16 commercial AMS. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews to develop case-studies which demonstrate how the benefits of AMS are being captured on farms with a range of herd sizes and system types. In addition a series of labour audits will be conducted to quantify labour input and hours worked on farm. It is imagined that the successful candidate will travel to each of the participating farms up to three times to collect data.

Investigation into challenges associated with reproductive management on commercial farms with Automatic Milking Systems

To date there are 14 commercial AMS farms in Australia (at least 3 more in installation phase). With AMS cows voluntarily move around the farm system with limited or no human encouragement. This creates a need to adopt different approaches with regard to detecting oestrus cows and reproductive management. The project would involve collecting reproductive performance data from commercial AMS farms to allow the candidate to identify key challenge areas associated with reproductive management. Semi-structured interviews would also be conducted with the farmers to identify the practices they have used and any application challenges they encountered. Understanding the limitations and implications of the dataset will be a necessary aspect of the project as only a small number of the commercial farms will be suitable for the study based on time elapsed since commissioning the equipment and quality of data recording on farm. Some data may be able to be accessed remotely but the successful participant will need to be prepared to travel to the commercial farms at least once within the tenure.

An additional area of research within the bounds of the project will be to investigate the changes (if any) made to reproductive management strategies and the factors that contributed to the decision making around these changes. Collecting similar information from conventional farms in the same region will help to determine if the changes are specific to AMS or if similar trends are seen in the region at an industry level.
This project will most likely fulfil the requirements for a masters or PhD degree if combined with research testing new approaches towards oestrus detection on AMS farms project.

Supervisor: / Dr Alison Gunn
Co-supervisor: Dr Kendra Kerrisk - / A/Prof. Yani Garcia

Further Information:
The successful candidate must have completed an undergraduate degree in agriculture or veterinary science, have research experience (Honours or Master’s degree), good analytical and communication skills, and be willing to work with data analysis and undertake field studies.

Developing/testing new approaches of oestrus detection with new spatial location technology for farms using Automatic Milking Systems

Whilst the results of the project will be initially targeted at AMS farms the application may stretch beyond this to conventional milking herds as well. The investigation will involve using radio transmission devices that record and transmit the spatial location of cows within the farm system. Analysis of the data combined with benchmark milk progesterone data will allow the candidate to investigate the potential of the technology to aid in oestrus detection.

Supervisor: / Dr Alison Gunn
Co-supervisor: Dr Kendra Kerrisk -

This project will most likely fulfil the requirements for a masters or PhD degree if combined with 2 above.

Further Information:
The successful candidate must have completed an undergraduate degree in agriculture, veterinary or IT/computer science, have research experience (Honours or Master’s degree), good analytical and communication skills, and be willing to work with data analysis and undertake field studies.

Nutrient distribution on farms with Automatic Milking Systems (AMS)

Opportunity exists for a student project to investigate the impact of AMS and more specifically voluntary cow traffic on the distribution of nutrients within the farm system. Effluent deposited on laneways is of concern since it cannot be captured, stored and distributed on paddocks and it can pose environmental management challenges. With an AMS the cows voluntarily traffic around the farm system. To date there has been no known work conducted on the impact of this voluntary traffic on nutrient distribution. It is possible that the volume of effluent deposited on laneways is reduced since the cows are not being herded to the dairy as a group. On the other hand the volume may be increased as cows have the opportunity to loiter on laneways as they move through the system at ‘cow pace’.

Supervisor: Dr Kendra Kerrisk -
Co-supervisor: A/Prof. Yani Garcia

Further Information:
The successful candidate must have completed an undergraduate degree in agriculture or veterinary science, have research experience (Honours or Master’s degree), good analytical and communication skills, and be willing to work with data analysis and undertake field studies.

The successful applicant must apply for and be awarded a scholarship (stipend) for example, an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) or IPA (International Postgraduate Award).

Grazing of forage crops and different pasture species in automatic milking systems

This PhD project will investigate the interactions at the animal-plant interface when cows moving voluntarily in an automatic milking system are given access to grazable forage crops and different pasture species. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop grazing management guidelines for some key forage crops that may be used in AMS systems in Australia in different seasons. The project may involve direct collaboration with researchers at Michigan State University in USA and may require spending at least one Australian autumn-winter in USA.

Supervisor: A/Prof Yani Garcia
Co-supervisor: Dr Kendra Kerrisk - / Dr Santiago Utsumi (Michigan State University)

Further Information:
The successful candidate must have completed an undergraduate degree in agriculture or veterinary science, have research experience (Honours or Master’s degree), good analytical and communication skills, and be willing to work with data analysis and undertake field studies.

The successful applicant must apply for and be awarded a scholarship (stipend) for example, an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) or IPA (International Postgraduate Award).

Using forage crops to enhance cow traffic in automatic milking systems

This PhD project will investigate the use of different forage crops to enhance cow traffic of cows moving voluntarily in automatic milking systems (AMS). The successful candidate will develop a program to understand the interactions between time of the day and distance to the paddocks for different grazable forage options across all 4 seasons.

Supervisor:A/Prof Yani Garcia
Co-supervisor: Dr Kendra Kerrisk -

Further Information:
The successful candidate must have completed an undergraduate degree in agriculture or veterinary science, have research experience (Honours or Master’s degree), good analytical and communication skills, and be willing to work with data analysis and undertake field studies.

The successful applicant must apply for and be awarded a scholarship (stipend) for example, an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) or IPA (International Postgraduate Award). A possibility exists for outstanding Australian or NZ candidates to apply for a FutureDairy scholarship (AU$30,000).

Dynamic simulation of cow traffic in Automatic Milking Systems

This PhD project will develop a dynamic model capable of representing the basic aspects of cow traffic system in a pasture-based automatic milking system (AMS). The successful candidate will work with dynamic simulation platforms to develop an ad hoc model and/or investigate the potential adaptation of existing models.

Supervisor: A/Prof Yani Garcia
Co-supervisor: Dr Kendra Kerrisk -

Further Information:
The successful candidate must have completed an undergraduate degree in agriculture, veterinary or IT/computer science, have research experience (Honours or Master’s degree), good analytical and communication skills, and be willing to work with simulation modelling but also undertake field studies.

The successful applicant must apply for and be awarded a scholarship (stipend) for example, an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) or IPA (International Postgraduate Award).

The use of n-alkanes and other internal markers to estimate intake of dairy cows fed complex mixes of pasture and forage diets

Plant wax markers can be used to estimate pasture/forage intake and diet composition based on the faecal recovery of these markers. This PhD project will develop techniques to better estimate actual faecal recovery of n-alkanes and other long-chain carbon compounds in cows fed complex diets comprised of pasture and forage crops and grains. The project will be largely based on analytical procedures related to the n-alkane technique, although controlled studies will be carried out to test different techniques/hypothesis.

Supervisor: Dr Ravneet Kaur Jhajj -
Co Supervisor: A/Prof Yani Garcia

Further Information:
The successful candidate must have completed an undergraduate degree in agriculture, veterinary or chemistry, have research experience (Honours or Master’s degree), good analytical and communication skills, and be prepared to work in a laboratory but also undertake field studies.

The successful applicant must apply for and be awarded a scholarship (stipend) for example, an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) or IPA (International Postgraduate Award).

Application of NIR in the nutritive evaluation of dairy cow diets

Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) analysis is commonly used to determine nutritive value of feed-stuffs in recent years. Commercially, it is important that farmers on individual farms have accurate and reliable results. This project will develop techniques to improve the application of NIR systems to assess the nutritive value of dairy cow diets. The project is laboratory based.

Supervisor: Dr Ajantha Horadagoda -
Co-supervisor: Dr Ravneet Kaur Jhajj - / A.Prof Yani Garcia

Further Information:
The successful candidate must have completed an undergraduate degree in agriculture, veterinary or chemistry, have research experience (Honours or Master’s degree), good analytical and communication skills, and be prepared to work in a laboratory but also undertake field studies.

The successful applicant must apply for and be awarded a scholarship (stipend) for example, an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) or IPA (International Postgraduate Award).

Carbon sequestration of high yielding complementary forage rotations (CFR)

This PhD project will investigate aspects of carbon sequestration and carbon balance in high yielding CFR systems. The CFR comprise double or triple crop rotations capable of producing over 40 t DM/ha per year.

Supervisor: Dr Rafiq Islam -
Co-supervisor:A/Prof Yani Garcia

Further Information:
The successful candidate must have completed an undergraduate degree in agriculture, veterinary or chemistry, have research experience (Honours or Master’s degree), good analytical and communication skills, and be prepared to work in a laboratory but also undertake field studies.

The successful applicant must apply for and be awarded a scholarship (stipend) for example, an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) or IPA (International Postgraduate Award).

Improvement of nutritive value of maize silage for dairy cows

Maize silage is a major component of complementary forage rotation (CFR) system which yielded over 25 t DM/ha out of a total of 40 t DM/ha from CFR. This PhD project will investigate aspects of improving nutritive value particularly metabolizable energy content of maize silage without compromising yield of maize.

Supervisor: Dr Rafiq Islam -
Co-supervisor: A/Prof Yani Garcia

Further Information:
The successful candidate must have completed an undergraduate degree in agriculture, veterinary or chemistry, have research experience (Honours or Master’s degree), good analytical and communication skills, and be prepared to work in a laboratory but also undertake field studies.

The successful applicant must apply for and be awarded a scholarship (stipend) for example, an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) or IPA (International Postgraduate Award).

The University of Sydney - Faculty of Veterinary Science