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: 10 May 2023 Background The Irish grazing system is based on an extended grazing season and the maximisation of grass in the animals’ diet. However, grass growth is highly seasonal and is dependent on soil type and weather conditions. Therefore, climate change is expected to have a substantial impact on grass growth (both on yield and pattern), which could impact the sustainability of the pasture based Irish system. This MSc will employ the Moorepark St Gilles
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: 26 March 2023 Background There is substantial evidence for a relationship between stress and eating quality in meat animals. In ruminants, stress level and in particular pre-slaughter stress affects diverse aspects of meat quality including juiciness and tenderness, colour and pH. Furthermore, the physiological and biochemical pathways determining meat quality differ in stressed versus unstressed animals. Finally, while the interaction of the production regime with the gastr
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: 18 March 2023 The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a Post-Doctoral Fellow to undertake research aimed at determining the mechanism of tolerance to infection with T. parva. These studies will complement the genomic analyses currently underway. A greater understanding of the mechanism of tolerance may reveal new insights into how best to control or prevent East Coast fever. The main purpose of the job is to undertake research
Deadline: 31March 2023 I. Background Fresh and conserved pasture swards and other green forages contain carotenoids that cause yellow colour to develop in the fat of ruminants when such forages are eaten regularly. The main pigment responsible is β-carotene, and to a lesser extent lutein. Fat colour and carotenoids are prominent among a number of measurements, which can aid the authentication of dietary history of ruminant meat. The use of carotenoid pigments has become established m
