HEIFERMAX

The P.C.R.A.A. is fortunate to have secured the renowned Dr. Temple Grandin as the keynote speaker at its 2009 conference, which will be held on 1st July at the Airport Motel, Attwood.

Dr. Grandin is recognised as a world leader in livestock handling and animal psychology and her work has revolutionised stockyard design and stock handling methods world wide. She has designed livestock facilities throughout the United States and in Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries. Her curved race systems are used worldwide and her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many producers to reduce stress during handling.

Dr. Grandin has a Ph.D in Animal Science and is currently a professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University. This enables her to continue her research while teaching courses on stockyard design and livestock handling. She has done extensive work on the design of handling facilities with the result that half the cattle in the U.S. and Canada are handled in equipment she has designed for meat plants.

Other professional activities include developing animal welfare guidelines for the meat industry. The majority of her work is involved with large feedlots and commercial meat packers.  She has worked with many large companies such as Cargill, Tyson, Smithfield, Seaboard, Cactus Feeders. She also does design work for many ranches and she has trained auditors regarding animal care at processing plants such as Wendy’s International, Burger King, Whole Foods, Chipotle, and McDonald’s Corporation. She also has consulted with organic and natural livestock producers on animal care standards. The animal handling guidelines she wrote for the American Meat Institute are being used by many large meat buying customers to objectively audit animal handling and stunning practices.

She has published several hundred industry publications, book chapters, technical papers articles, seven books and has developed her own website (www.grandin.com) which has been expanded to include information on livestock handling in addition to information relative to the design of handling systems
Securing Dr. Grandin as a speaker is a trememdous achievement as she is in high demand for speaking engagements; these days poor health limits the number of overseas engagements she accepts. Her visit to Australia presents a rare opportunity for people involved in stock handling to learn first hand from her accumulated wisdom.

Dr. Peter  Wynn, who is the Professor of Animal Production at the Charles Sturt University at Wagga Wagga will discuss his experiences working with dairies in Pakistan. He has a research grant with Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research to improve dairy production in Pakistan through improved extension services.

Dr. Wynn’s research work has included ruminant endocrinology, growth physiology and genomics. He has had major competitive grants of more than $5M in the past 15 years from the ARC and industry research funding agencies, eg MLA, AWI, Dairy Australia, Australian Pork Limited.

Dr. Wynn also played an integral role in the research programs of the Co-operative Research Centre for Innovative Dairy Products and the Pork CRC. Current research grants enable him to research feed conversion efficiency and carcass composition in pigs.

The secretary of the P.C.R.A.A., Dr. Theresa Frankel will present a paper on recent work on the absorption of antibodies from colostrum. Dr. Frankel, who has worked internationally as a practicing vet, is currently a lecturer in animal and human nutrition at LaTrobe University.

The final speaker will be Kerry Spain, who is the 2008 winner of the Diamond V Calf Rearer of the Year award. Kerry will tell us what she learned from her trip to the 2009 D.C.H.A. conference in Tucson, Arizona.

Once again, we can promise an informative and entertaining day and expect a full complement of trade displays to provide information on recent product developments.