Latest Updates
A highly successful postgraduate conference was held at the Gold coast from November 2-5 in conjunction with the Beef CRC. A total of 36 students attended, and presented to a panel of 10 academics/scientists from both of these CRCs. Of the Sheep CRC students Gareth Kelly was the best performed student in the 2nd/3rd year category (3rd place), and Sam Clark was 1st placed in the 1st year category. Following the conference Professor David Lindsay delivered a workshop on scientific writing which was again well received by the students.
A total of 9 applications were received in the November round of post-graduate scholarship offers. Pleasingly two were for industry Masters degrees. The applicants were assessed by the postgraduate selection panel in December, and a total of 8 offers were made. The CRC target for enrolments in 2009/10 is 13, and we anticipate running another round of scholarship offers in April 2010. The current number of postgraduate students that have accepted scholarship stands at 14 following the withdrawal of one masters student and failure to take up an earlier offer by another.
Planning for the next round of graduate tracking in underway.
The Sheep CRC was deeply saddened with the recent death of post-graduate student Charlotte Jack. Charlotte was studying parasitological factors associated with survival and production of merinos from weaning to 18 months. Our sincere sympathies are extended to Charlotte’s family.
The first year of the Graduate Certificate in Rural Science (Agricultural Consulting) has been completed with 28 completions in the two core consulting units. Rounds of advertising for semester 1, 2010 occurred in November and December and some 40 enquiries have been dealt with to date. We have a target of 15 enrolments in each unit during 2010.
In total, 9,644 hours of training have been delivered in Programs 1 (5,280 hrs) and 5 (3,750 hrs) in the period July-Dec. This compares favourably with the annual milestone requirement to deliver 6,000 hours of training for the year. Project 5.2 training hours arose from the Graduate Certificate course and 7 short training events.
Extensive work has been undertaken to develop web based information resources on Flystrike Management. These resources were made available to industry in November, in advance of the FlyBoss launch, due to the demand from industry. The Flystrike Management information will be incorporated into FlyBoss when it is launched in February 2010. A national Flystrike Management Extension Program is on track for delivery from February through a series of workshops.
A project proposal has been submitted to Agrifood Skills Australia to fund the development of four training packages for use of ASBV genetics technologies for industry.
Planning for provision of industry information, resources and training in worm management and methane emission management is underway.
Substantial work has been undertaken for Precision Sheep Management (PSM) training development to:
• review and revise the PSM Masterclass
• identify funding for development of an accredited PSM training package
• identify an appropriate RTO to develop an accredited training package for PSM in the future.
Subject to securing funding for development, all the elements are now in place for a PSM training package to be ready for roll out to industry from July 2010. Such a training package has already been approved for FarmReady Reimbursement Grants in NSW and it is anticipated that this approval will be extended nationally once the training package development is underway.
CJ Hawkins Homestead, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351