Farming News - RVC research receives major cash boost to ensure health and welfare of dairy cows
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RVC research receives major cash boost to ensure health and welfare of dairy cows
The RVC will play a significant part in delivering research that will be of major benefit to British Dairy Farmers as part of an ambitious £5 million scheme - it has been announced today.
DairyCo has committed £5 million to be spent over the next five years on two new research partnerships which will feed directly into DairyCo’s own technical guides and knowledge transfer activities, as well as being promoted for wider use by others in the industry.
The RVC will play a major part in delivering the research strategy on health and welfare, in partnership with a consortium of five other research centers - University of Nottingham, Harper Adams University College, Scottish Agricultural College, University of Bristol and the University of Aberystwyth.
"The RVC team are delighted that they will be making a major contribution to the new consortium on Health, Welfare and Nutrition funded by DairyCo." said Prof Claire Wathes of the Department of Veterinary Basic Sciences at the RVC. "We will work with industry partners to establish a database of disease incidence in the national herd, conduct research into optimizing methods to reduce Johne’s disease, and improved methods to assess welfare of cows on farms."
" The RVC - with our farm animal practice partner Westpoint Veterinary Services - will also play a key role within the consortium by working closely with DairyCo to co-ordinate the delivery of knowledge transfer to dairy farmers over the next five years.
“We are looking forward to joining this exciting new initiative as it allows us to deliver important new research findings and work closely with GB dairy producers to help them meet the exacting demands of the modern industry.”
“We recognise the importance of continuing technical development to maintaining an efficient, globally competitive and consumer-friendly dairy industry,” says Ray Keatinge, head of research and development at DairyCo.“The partnership approach will not only provide new information for dairy farmers, but will help build the UK industry’s capacity to deliver more of this type of research in the future.”
The second main areas of research will focus on soil, forage and grassland, and will be led by the Scottish Agricultural College partnering Harper Adams University College and Reading University.