The research powerhouse that is UNE’s School of Environmental and Rural Science (ERS) has scooped in $33.6 million in new research funding in the first three months of 2022.
“The success of these projects reaffirms UNE’s status as a leading research provider to funders looking for excellence in the rural sciences and in environmental research,” said ERS Head of School, Professor Julius van der Werf.
“UNE won these projects largely because we have world-class research teams that engage with industry, governments and other funding bodies to solve some of the important problems confronting the nation.”
“Another important element in our successful research bids was UNE’s past investment in infrastructure, such as the SMART Farms and Centre for Animal Research and Teaching (CART).”
The knowledge gained from new and existing research projects will inform ERS’s future teaching output.
“We’ll have several students working on these projects, while all of our research flows into our teaching, helping us to produce graduates at the forefront of innovation in agriculture,” says Professor Van der Werf.
Several projects that jointly attracted $4.8 million will assess the effectiveness of the marine microalgae, Asparagopsis, as a feed supplement for lowering the methane emissions of ruminant livestock. A significant portion of the funding comes from the Federal Government’s Methane Emissions Reduction in Livestock (MERiL) scheme. Co-investors include Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), and industry partners Future Feed, Australian Agricultural Company and DSM. Asparagopsis projects focusing on cattle are led by Associate Professor Fran Cowley and Dr Amelia de Almeida; the sheep project is run by Dr Tom Davison and Dr Emma Doyle.
Also focusing on methane, MLA and collaborators from the NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Angus Society have allocated a combined $19 million to two UNE projects looking at whether ruminant methane emissions can be addressed at the genomic level. Both projects will examine whether methane emissions can be effectively reduced through genetic selection, meaning that livestock breeders may ultimately select for those traits that best balance animal productivity with emissions intensity. The projects aim to deliver a one per cent reduction per year in methane emissions from each species, underpinning the long-term sustainability of livestock production systems.
Associate Professor Sam Clark will be leading the $14.5 million project in cattle, and Professor Julius van der Werf leads the $4.5 million project in sheep.
Four projects collectively backed by $8.3 million from the Future Drought Fund will look at future drought resilience. UNE was awarded three Innovation Grants from the Fund, out of 15 awarded Australia-wide from more than 800 expressions of interest.
Dr Tom Davison leads a $4.1 million project aiming to increase adoption of deep-rooted legumes and conserved forage as drought resilience strategies for grazing systems in Northern Australia. The project, titled ‘Overcoming the knowledge gaps’, will work with 12 producers from northern NSW, Qld and the NT.
Lu Hogan leads a $1.3 million project to develop drought resilience farmlets on Clarks Farm, and integration of practical drought resilience teaching into multiple units at UNE, further cementing the links between teaching, research and UNE SMART Farms. Charles Sturt University, which is developing farmlets for a similar purpose in southern NSW, is a collaborator. Lu Hogan is also leading the $2 million investment in the Armidale Node of the Drought Hub, which was launched in late February.
Professor Lewis Kahn leads the development of a $3 million project, in partnership with Central Queensland University and CSIRO, that will develop strategies for ranking livestock using genetic, genomic and phenotypic data to optimise livestock sale and/or retention strategies before, during and after drought. Deciding what proportion of breeders to sell, and which ones, and how this decision varies across different regions, is key to delivering financial, environmental and social benefits for cattle and sheep producers.
Professor Kahn also leads a $900,000 project that will take a coaching approach with farmers to lead to better management of pastures using real-time and climate forecast information provided from Ag360, an online tool initially developed by the Sheep CRC and assigned to UNE. The objective will be to increase farm productivity, ground cover, and soil organic matter, reduce weeds, erosion and rainfall runoff, and improve water quality, baseflows and ecosystems of waterways. Project partners, NSW Local Land Services, GLENRAC Inc., and SNEL Ltd will use their regional networks to develop a community of practice to share data and knowledge among farming communities.
Associate Professor Guy Ballard will be working on a Commonwealth funded $1.55 million project to improve predator management on private land in the New England region, in partnership with NSW DPI and Local Land Services.
Dr Emma Doyle secured a $940,000 agreement with the Australian Wool Education Trust for the delivery of sheep and wool education resources to tertiary students Australia-wide.
And Dr Sarah Mika received 12-month extensions on two grants, worth a total of $1.9 million, to assess the ecological benefits of environmental flows in the Warrego-Darling and Gwydir River catchments of the Northern Murray-Darling Basin. The projects, which straddle agriculture and environment, are investigating responses of vegetation, water quality, basal food resources, frogs, turtles, fish and waterbirds to environmental water.
Professor van der Werf said that collectively, these new projects and those already underway will add to UNE’s decades-long contribution to the world-class productivity and sustainability of Australia’s agricultural sector.
“The methane reduction work builds on this tradition of service to industry by addressing livestock’s role in climate change, a pressing issue that will require swift solutions to maintain productivity and market acceptance.”
