Current projects

A major component of AFBI’s Dairy research programme is to improve production efficiency through diet and by improving animal health and performance. To achieve this, novel nutrition, breeding and other management strategies are investigated using our dairy herd at AFBI Hillsborough.

Research

• The role of confinement, partial confinement and zero grazing systems within the Northern Ireland dairy sector, and the identification of strategies to optimise these systems
• The role of higher protein forages and home grown protein sources within Northern Ireland dairy systems.

BovIS related projects

• 
  Ongoing support and development of existing BovIS online applications
• Investigation of factors associated with achievement of market specification and development of in spec benchmarking and cost comparison tools for producers
• Investigation of factors associated with disease incidence detected in the abattoir and development of online benchmarking application for producers
• Review of existing and potential methods to facilitate sire recording in Northern Ireland and investigate the potential role of DNA traceability 

Dairy youngstock projects

• 
  A range of commercial projects examining aspects of calf nutrition, health and welfare.
• Nutritional requirements of dairy youngstock throughout the rearing phase
• Efficient grazing systems for dairy youngstock incorporating precision technologies
• Immune system development in dairy calves
• Colostrum management
• Welfare and health indicators and early warning systems for dairy calves