Professor Fran Cowley
Professor, Livestock Production - School of Environmental and Rural Science
Phone: +61 2 6773 6164
Email: fcowley@une.edu.au
Biography
Professor in Livestock Production in the School of Environmental and Rural Science. She is a leader of the UNE Ruminant Research Group (RRG). Her research interests range from the systems level of livestock production down to the metabolic level, studying the actions and interactions of nutrients with ruminant physiology. She has conducted research on sheep, dairy and beef cattle, in grazing and grain-fed systems. Currently a main focus for her research is nutritional solutions to methane emissions and carbon footprints of cattle and sheep, utilising the world's largest methane research facility at UNE. Fran has a keen interest in research for grain-fed cattle, and has conducted numerous industry-funded research projects to improve the productivity, welfare and sustainability of Australian lot-fed cattle at Australia's only commercial-scale research feedlot at UNE's Tullimba Feedlot.
Fran has extensive experience in agricultural research in South East Asia and the Pacific. She has worked on research for development projects in ruminant livestock systems in Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Fiji and Samoa. In these projects she has lead a variety of research activities associated with animal nutrition, cattle growth paths, and village-based beef production systems and livelihoods research. Fran leads a large group of researchers and post-graduate students in the RRG, supervising more than 20 PhD and Masters students. Qualifications: Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons), The University of Queensland. PhD in Animal Nutrition, The University of Queensland.
