Deadline: 02 June 2023 Background Agriculture is the single largest contributor (~30%) to overall Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in Ireland accounting for the majority of methane emissions produced primarily due to ruminant livestock production. Methane, a GHG 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide, is released as a by-product of rumen microbial fermentation and from stored manure and slurry on farm. Under recent national legislation, Ireland has committed to reduce GHG emissions fr
Deadline: open until filled I. Background Staphylococcus aureus is a major mastitis pathogen with significant economic impact on the dairy industry. Intra mammary infection is associated with a number of bovine-adapted clonal lineages of this bacterium and significant differences between these lineages have been identified in both in vitro and in vivo virulence traits. This project will test the hypothesis that strain genotype influences mastitis epidemiology and that strains from the global
Deadline: 02 June 2023 I. Background Despite generally declining soil phosphorus (P) balances, the impairment of fresh waters due to P and nitrogen (N) emissions from agricultural landscapes remains a key environmental issue. Relatively small but critical source areas within agricultural catchments tend to contribute disproportionally to nutrient concentrations in receiving waters, and require identification followed by targeted remediation strategies. Farm roadways, which typically retai
Deadline: 31 May 2023 I. Background Today’s food systems are extremely resource intensive, covering about 40% of the world’s ice and desert-free land and using about two-thirds of all freshwater withdrawals. One of the main causes of these environmental impacts is that our current food systems operate on a wasteful linear model. The concept of ‘circular food systems’ is increasingly seen as a promising response to these environmental challenges, and as an important
Deadline: 24 March 2023 I. Background National breeding objectives in sheep have been established in Ireland, however, the rates of genetic gain recorded to date are lower in comparison to New Zealand sheep, which are considerably higher, reflecting a longer established national programme. Previous studies from Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland have shown that New Zealand sired lambs had less lambing difficulty, lower costs of production, and reached slaughter earlier, however, to date no
Deadline: 17 March 2023 The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit an MSc graduate fellow to work on Genetic diversity and subsetting of Andropogon ganayus and Cynodon spp collections under the Feed and Forage Development (FFD) program at ILRI. The FFD program aims to provide options to increase the quantity and quality of feed resources to improve livestock productivity in order to meet the growing demand for animal-source food, enhance profitability by reducin
Deadline: 24 March 2023 I. Background Ireland’s competitive advantage in sheep meat production is based on the efficient production and utilization of pasture. Challenges facing the agricultural sector are based on maintaining or improving current levels of production to maintain an economically viable sector but with an enhanced focus on environmental sustainability and a reduced dependence on chemical nitrogen use. A key focus of the DAFM Food Vision 2030 strategy is to investigat
Deadline: 24 March 2023 I. Background Ireland’s competitive advantage in lamb meat production is based on the efficient production and utilization of grazed pasture. One of the major constraints to achieving higher animal performance from pasture-based systems is the difficulty in achieving optimum growth rates from grazed grass only diets. The overall objective of the proposed project is to provide knowledge on the growth pattern of lowland lambs, building a model allowing for the
Deadline: 12 March 2023. The Right Livelihood College (RLC) offers a DAAD-funded PhD research scholarship on: Agro-ecology among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa: improving use efficiency and conserving natural ecosystems while enhancing smallholders’ livelihoods. The scholarship is funded for 3.5 years starting from August 1, 2023. It covers a Junior Researcher position at ZEF and respective costs for travel and research. In the first year, the candidate will participate in
Deadline: 27 February 2023 I. Background Methane originating from enteric fermentation in ruminants is the single largest source of anthropogenic agricultural emissions (approx. 60% of Irish and 76% of NZ agricultural emissions) and has a significant impact on global methane levels. The project will involve a multi-omics approach to determine key microbes and rumen fermentation pathways associated with a low residual methane emissions (RME) phenotype in beef cattle. The ability of exogeno
