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Home > About Us > Our groups > Animal Nutrition & Health > Animal Nutrition

Animal Nutrition

Fresians grazing 

The Animal Nutrition teams core focus is to improve the understanding of the digestive, absorptive and metabolic processes involved in nutrient utilisation by ruminants, and apply this knowledge to increase the efficiency at which feed nutrients are converted into animal product.

Our core capabilities are in animal nutrition and digestive physiology, and we endeavour to produce nutritional management strategies that will produce a better profile of nutrients for absorption and utilisation, with less noxious emissions such as methane and urinary nitrogen. Ultimately, increases in the efficiency of feed digestion and nutrient utilisation at the animal level are expected to contribute to the development of ruminant production systems that are financially and environmentally sustainable.

 

 People

 

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McCoard, Dr SueResearch ScientistGrasslands
Muetzel, Dr StefanSenior Research ScientistGrasslands
Pacheco, Dr DavidTeam LeaderGrasslands
Pinares Patino, Dr CesarResearch ScientistGrasslands
 

 Current research

 
  • Understanding the effects of methane inhibition on rumen fermentation
  • Characterisation of animal-to-animal variation in methane emissions
  • Improvement of mathematical models of rumen methanogenesis
  • Influence of early-life nutrition on rumen development and animal performance
  • Defining methane emission factors for livestock classes and animal feeds.
 

 Capabilities

 
  • Automated in vitro rumen batch cultures
  • Automated in vitro rumen continuous flow fermenters (artificial rumen)
  • Respiration chambers for GHG measurements
  • Characterisation of dietary and animal factors involved in methane production
  • Nitrogen/energy partitioning
  • Measurement of nutrient fluxes using stable isotopes
  • In situ and in vivo digestibility tests
  • Near infrared spectroscopy for feed quality analysis
  • Animal performance trials
  • Characterisation of development of structure and function of the digestive tract of ruminants.
 

 Contact

 
Dr David Pacheco
Science Team Leader
Email David