Ruminant Research Group Projects
Methane
The Ruminant Research Group has a number of ongoing projects focused on methane emission mitigation in livestock production.
Animal welfare
Our work in animal welfare focuses on the impact of livestock management on the health and wellbeing of animals.
Latest publications from the RRG team
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New publication
Physical and chemical characteristics of feedlot pen substrate bedded with woodchip under wet climatic conditions -
Pasifika Sheep and Goat Improvement Project collaboration with UNE
Pasifika Sheep and Goat Improvement Project is a ACIAR funded and aims to provide support to sheep and goat farmers in Fiji and Samoa. The project is composed by research, capacity building and extension components. -
AAAS 2022 Conference Wrap-Up
Check out the project work presented at the recent Australian Association for Animal Sciences conference 2022
The welfare impacts of virtual fencing technologies. A joint project with the CSIRO and Dairy Australia with PhD student Tellisa Kearton. The condition of bedding provided on ships and the amount of ammonia in the air from manure can impact animal welfare, health and performance outcomes. PhD student Bonnie Mayes is working on the impact of stocking density on the welfare of sheep under live export conditions. Dr. Dougherty is part of a project is using modelling techniques to revise the current Australian feeding standards for ruminants to better predict body composition, compensatory gain, and how animals respond to nutritional changes. This project is part of Meat and Livestock Australia’s Livestock Productivity Partnership, and is a collaboration between institutions such as UNE, NSW DPI, UC Davis, and CSIRO. The project combines energetics and tissue data to better understand and predict animal energy requirements across a wide range of production systems and environments, improving prediction of animal performance and meat quality. The finished model will link predicted feed intake to variation in growth, body composition, and methane emissions, to better predict animal energy requirements and responses to change, such as compensatory growth and response to supplementation during drought. Dr. Dougherty is a key part of the team developing and refining the new model, and validating the model against data from the literature. The model, when finished, will be used as an underlying “engine” in decision support tools for livestock producers and industry, guiding feeding decisions and improving the efficiency of red meat production. This project, a collaboration between UNE and NSW DPI, explores how variation in heat production and body composition affects methane production and whole-animal efficiency. The project also combines tissue, mitochondrial, and genomic data to explore the impacts of changes in the gut and liver on whole-animal metabolism and efficiency. Lambs were CT scanned as a non-invasive, low-stress way of examining how fat and protein change over time as animals grow or adapt to different diets, and combined with methane and heat production data to provide a comprehensive picture of animal efficiency. These results will help improve understanding of metabolic drivers of nutrient efficiency in changing situations – will an animal that is efficient on a medium quality diet continue to thrive when nutritional conditions improve or worsen? How do fat and muscle change in response, and how is this linked to changes in gut size and methane emissions? Contact Dr Dougherty for more information on this project. Bone contains the highest amount of calcium and phosphorus in the body, which is utilised in periods of peak demand e.g. growth, gestation and lactation. Mineral supplementation is common in areas of insufficient nutrition e.g. Northern Australia, of which 70% is deficient in phosphorus. Bioactive compounds have been shown to increase calcium and phosphorus absorption whilst triggering bone growth, allowing for the stockpiling of minerals to be used at a later date when needed. Along with this, increasing mineral absorption increases the efficiencies of mineral supplementation, saving time and money in Australia’s beef and dairy industries. My project is involved in investigating the effects of Vitamin D metabolites on mineral absorption, mineral efficiencies and bone growth utilising sheep as a model ruminant. MRSci student Jon Clay is working on this project with supervisors Prof. Roger Hegarty (NZAGRC, UNE), Dr Joe McGrath (DSM Australia) and Dr Richard Charlesworth (UNE).
