Manod Williams BSc Agriculture with Animal Science (AU), MSc Livestock Science (AU), PhD Precision Livestock Farming (AU), PGCTHE (AU)

Manod Williams

Darlithydd mewn Biomilfeddygaeth a Gwyddor Anifeiliaid

Department of Life Sciences

Contact Details

Profile

I graduated with a BSc in Agriculture with Animal Science at IBERS, Aberystwyth University in 2012. I was then fortunate to gain a scholarship from the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (CCC) to study for an MSc in Livestock Science (completed 2014) followed by a PhD in the livestock sciences again at IBERS (completed 2019). My PhD focused on the development of techniques to automatically identify the behaviour of pasture-based dairy cows using discrete sensors, ultimately to support farmers as a management tool. As part of the CCC scholarship, I was involved in the development of Welsh-medium teaching provision in the field of Livestock Production Systems. I currently teach Livestock Production Systems to all undergraduate FdSc and BSc scheme years as well as MSc students. I also contribute to several other modules including Livestock Nutrition, Critical Review and Research Methods. In my own time, I enjoy cycling, running and growing vegetables!    

Teaching

Module Coordinator
Lecturer
Tutor
Grader
Coordinator
Course Viewer

Research

My research interests lie in the area of Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) techniques to assist farmers in the management of their livestock. PLF is already contributing to the management of livestock at farm level, allowing farmers, veterinary practitioners and others involved to get more information on how their animals are behaving and performing. With this information, it may be possible to identify issues earlier, including issues leading to poor performance and welfare. Along with colleagues, I am currently involved in PLF research with a focus on monitoring the feeding behaviour of cattle and the behaviour of sheep at pasture with a view to better understand the impact of parasite burden on their behaviour. A strong focus of this research will be to disseminate this information to the next generation of agriculturalists and animal scientists. To achieve this, we have been working closely with several further education providers in Wales including Llysfasi College. 

Responsibilities

I coordinate and teach on several undergraduate and postgraduate modules with a focus on Livestock Production Systems at IBERS. I am an admissions tutor for IBERS D-schemes and I also co-coordinate the IBERS Peer Guide Scheme. 

Research Groups

  • Sustainable Grassland Systems and Agri-Food

Publications

Williams, M, Davis, CN, Jones, DL, Davies, ES, Vasina, P, Cutress, D, Rose, MT, Jones, RA & Williams, HW 2021, 'Lying behaviour of housed and outdoor-managed pregnant sheep', Applied Animal Behaviour Science, vol. 241, 105370. 10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105370
Jones, RA, Davis, CN, Jones, DL, Tyson, F, Davies, E, Cutress, D, Brophy, PM, Rose, MT, Williams, M & Williams, HW 2021, 'Temporal dynamics of trematode intermediate snail host environmental DNA in small water body habitats', Parasitology. 10.1017/S0031182021001104
Davis, C, Tyson, F, Cutress, D, Davies, E, Jones, D, Brophy, P, Prescott, A, Rose, M, Williams, M, Williams, H & Jones, R 2020, 'Rapid detection of Galba truncatula in water sources on pasture-land using loop-mediated isothermal amplification for control of trematode infections', Parasites & Vectors, vol. 13, no. 496. 10.1186/s13071-020-04371-0
Williams, M, James, WP & Rose, M 2019, 'Variable segmentation and ensemble classifiers for predicting dairy cow behaviour', Biosystems Engineering, vol. 178, pp. 156-167. 10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2018.11.011
Williams, ML, James, W & Rose, M 2017, 'Fixed-time data segmentation and behaviour classification of pasture-based cattle: Enhancing performance using a hidden Markov model', Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 142, no. Part B, pp. 585-596. 10.1016/j.compag.2017.11.010
More publications on the Research Portal