Just 18 months into her role as a dairy research officer with the Department of Agriculture and Food, Bronwyn Edmunds has been announced as one of six finalists in a national communication award for young scientists.
The Feed Central Young Scientists Communication Award will be judged at the Australian Dairy Conference in Geelong in February 2014.
The recognition builds on Dr Edmunds’ success in the 2013 Dairy Research Foundation’s National Emerging Scientist competition, where she achieved second place for her presentation.
Dr Edmunds said as part of the award process she would have to convey to fellow scientists and farmers the important implications of her research for the future of the dairy industry in Australia.
“The work involved identifying changes to the amino acid profile of forages after rumen exposure,” Dr Edmunds said.
“In high-producing dairy cows, milk production is often restricted by the first limiting amino acid. Identification of limiting amino acids is difficult as the amino acid profile of feeds changes in the rumen and methods used to measure the amino acids from undigested feed are fraught with error.
“The results of my study revealed the amino acid profile was similar between forages of various species, conservation and maturity.
“This result could greatly reduce the number of samples required to be analysed and get us that one step further in precision feeding protein to dairy cows.
“I hope my presentation will help maintain the department’s reputation as having a strong and successful dairy research team and attract future research funding.”
Dr Edmunds currently works on the Flexible Feeding Systems project co-funded by Dairy Australia, liaising with 13 partner producers.
“We have just completed a year of on-farm monitoring which has enabled us to identify practices that impact on farm profitability,” Dr Edmunds said.
“By resolving the imperfect practices we identified in pasture management, feed wastage and grain allocation calibrating in the dairies, farmers will see a direct cost benefit,” she said.
“These are only preliminary results from observation alone. Analysis of the data collected from on-farm monitoring is still in progress and we hope the results will further benefit industry.”
The Bunbury-based scientist is recognised as a significant research talent for the local dairy industry, with Western Dairy funding her attendance at national and internationally attended dairy and pasture symposiums.
Dr Edmunds has authored a number of papers published in scientific journals including the Journal of Dairy Science, Grass and Forage Science and Animal Feed Science and Technology.
Media contact: Jodie Thomson/Dionne Tindale, media liaison +61 (0)8 9368 3937