Who we are

Group members

Prof. Nigel Scollan (Animal Systems Group Leader; Animal and Microbial Science Theme Leader; animal nutrition; animal systems; product quality).
Dr Basil Wolf (Lecturer; animal breeding; sheep production)
Dr Christina Marley (Principal Investigator; agricultural systems)
Dr Debbie Nash (Lecturer; equine reproduction; equine exercise physiology)
Dr Eun Joong Kim (Research Scientist; ruminant nutrition; rumen function)
Dr Jon Moorby (Principal Investigator; dairy systems; environmental impact)
Dr Mariecia Fraser (Principal Investigator; upland animal systems; land use)
Dr Michael Rose (Lecturer; dairy systems; lactation; equine)
Dr Mina Davies-Morel (Senior Lecturer; Deputy Director postgraduate studies; M.Sc. Equine Science and Animal Science Course Coordinator)
Prof. Jamie Newbold (IBERS Research Director, rumen microbiology)
Dr Neil McEwan (Lecturer in Animal and Equine Science; microbial diversity)
Dr Phillipa Nicholas (Research Associate; socio-economics; farm systems)
Simon Moakes (Research Associate; socio-economics; farm systems)
Prof. William Haresign (Deputy Director IBERS; sheep genetics and breeding)
Tony O’Regan (Lecturer in Business Management; Director of Farm Business Survey)
Dr Michael Lee (Principal Investigator; ruminant and monogastric nutrition; product quality)

Postgraduate students

Eleri Price - (PhD student, sheep genetics and breeding)
Sarah Morgan - (PhD student; ruminant nutrition and beef product quality)
Sophie Doran - (PhD student; methane and ruminants)
Sridar Sagatarame - (PhD student; meat safety)
Sophie Parker - (PhD student; dairy cow health)
Mike Allman - (PhD student; equine science)
Jennifer Kember - (PhD student; equine science)
Clare Alison - (PhD student; equine science)

Animal, land, equine and administration teams

Hannah Titley - Equine Centre Manager, Instructor BHS II
Shelly Buffrey - Equine Centre Practical Instructor, BHSAI IntSM
Caryl Williams - Assistant Practical Instructor, BHS Stage 3
Vince Theobald - Animal technical support
Rhun Fychan - Animal, agronomy and silage technical support
Steven Lewis - Animal technical support
John Davies - Animal technical support
Phoebe Webster - Animal technical support
Martin Leyland - Animal technical support
Naomi Gordon - Animal technical support
Hannah Flemin - Animal technical support
Brian Davies - Animal and laboratory technical support
Gary Easton - Animal and laboratory technical support
Dave Leemans - Laboratory technical support
John Tweed - Laboratory technical support
Jan Newman - Project Administrator
Jess Longworth - Administrator

What we do

The Animal Systems group consists of four research areas:

• Environment:  the aim of this area is to carry out research on ways of minimising the environmental impact of farm livestock while maintaining a productive landscape.  Current research projects include investigations into methane emissions from sheep and cattle to establish emission factors for a new UK GHG inventory, dietary feed components and additives to reduce methane emissions, and management strategies to reduce nitrogen excretion.
• Livestock and Consumer Health: the aim of this area is the utilisation and development of feeding systems that will improve the health of the animal and the quality of the animal product which will ultimately result in a healthier consumer. Such work involves the increase in the deposition of beneficial fatty acids in to animal products and the reduction of pathogens in the food chain.
• Agricultural Systems: the aim is to develop innovative agricultural systems to deliver improvements in agricultural productivity, environmental protection, economic stability and animal health. Research focus includes the optimisation of nutrient use from soil to animal products within low-input, high-forage ruminant livestock systems – with a specific objective of reducing reliance on imported feeds, fertilisers and veterinary pharmaceuticals.  
• Equine: primary research areas include: microbial diversity and change within the equine gut, factors that affect this microbial population and their interrelationship to equine health and performance; genetic diversity within and between equine breeds, link to evolutionary development and selection by mankind; conception and early equine pregnancy, follicular development, multiple ovulation, multiple pregnancy, early embryo mortality, early pregnancy diagnosis and assessment of pregnancy viability; biomechanics; monitoring of pressure distribution on the horse’s back.  Colleagues support taught degree programmes from Foundation degree to M.Sc. in Equine Studies/Science and research degrees M.Phil. and Ph.D.

Examples of our work  include:

• SOLID  -  Sustainable Organic and Low Input Dairying
• PROSOIL – healthy soils, the true drivers of sustainable and profitable agriculture
• SLP – Sustainable Lamb Production
• REDNEX – Innovative and practical management approaches to reduce nitrogen excretion by ruminants
• MULTISWARD – Multi-species swards and multi scale strategies for multifunctional grassland-based ruminant production systems
• SMEthane – Technological platform to develop nutritional additives to reduce methane emissions from ruminants
• PROSAFE BEEF  - Plant based strategies to enhance he nutritional value of beef
• ANIMAL CHANGE – An integration of mitigation and adapatation options for sustainable livestock production under climate change
• WISE2. Welsh Institute for Sustainable Environments
• Ivy for ruminates: TSB funded project
• Academics for Business (A4B)  Application of plant extracts to control pathogens in silage
• DSM: The effect of Novel additives on methane production by ruminants
• Defra GHG Platform inventory projects
• LINK plant breeding projects to measure pollutant emissions from ruminants on novel lines of forages – Jon/Michael/Christina
• QUOATS LINK project – evaluation of methane production/reduction potential of novel oats varieties using sheep and dairy cows http://www.quoats.org/
• A4B projects – Two collaborative industrial research projects (CIRP) investigating the potential of fluorescent markers to increase identification of contamination in the red meat and poultry sectors
• TSB Nutrition for Life – Novel farm and slaughterhouse interventions to reduce the burden of campylobacter in the UK broiler industry
• LADP Green Odour – The potential of plant volatiles (oxylipins) which constitute the green odour of cut grass to influence lipid metabolism in dairy cows
• TSB – LUKAA – Lupins in UK Agriculture and Aquaculture
• TSB – EFBS – Developing Efficient Forage-Based Systems for ruminants

 

Funding

Our main sources of funding for large projects are: the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), The Food Standards Agency (FSA), Welsh Government, The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and the European Union (EU). We also have a wide range of industrial collaborators from small and medium enterprises to large multinational corporations, with whom we undertake collaborative research, development, demonstration and commercialisation as well as carrying out contract research and consultancy.

Facilities

Animal Systems maintains a number of well-equipped and staffed large animal facilities enabling us to study cattle, sheep and equines.  These include:

• A metabolism unit able to accommodate up to about 30 lactating dairy cows or growing and adults beef cattle, allowing individual measurements of feed intake, digestibility and nutrient partitioning.  Chambers for the measurement of methane emissions from dairy cows are in the process of being constructed.
• Facilities and in-house expertise enable detailed feed utilisation and digestibility work to be carried out, including in vivo rumen fermentation and digesta flow measurements.
• A dairy cow unit, with facilities to measure individual feed intake of up to 56 lactating dairy cows, together with automatic live weight and milk yield measurements.  Out of parlour feeders enable a range of concentrate feeds to be individually allocated to cows.
• A beef unit, with automatic feed intake measurements for up to 80 cattle, also with concentrate feeders.
• A newly refurbished farm unit with flexible group housing for sheep and young cattle.
• Access to field-scale plots for grazing studies for sheep, beef and dairy cattle, enabling growth and lactation studies, coupled with intake and methane emission measurements in free-ranging animals.
• A small ruminant unit, with flexible facilities for group and individual animal observations, together with methane chambers enabling the simultaneous measurement of methane emissions from up to 8 animals.
• Extensive equine facilities including a dedicated research yard and an international-sized indoor riding arena 
• Laboratories equipped and staffed to carry out detailed specialist quantitative analyses of feed and product samples for compounds including amino acids, fatty acids, methane and sulphur hexafluoride.  Dedicated Animal Science analytical facilities include FTIR, GC/MS, GC, LC and spectroscopy equipment, together with the expertise to run it for specific and less targeted (metabolomics) investigations.

News and events

 

Click here for the proceedings of the ISNH8 event

Animal Systems EU Projects news:

• Colloquium for Equine Reproduction 2013 reveals first-rate programme

•  BSAS Healthy Food from Healthy Animals in Nottingham 24-25 April several members of Animal Systems will be attending and presenting  

•  The Eighth International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores was an outstanding success, hosted at IBERS in 2011.