| Education
Students take part in beef feed trials with major retailer
Fourteen first year, Level Three Extended Diploma in Agriculture students are taking on a trial with leading meat producer Anglo Beef Processors( ABP) Ltd; and the world’ s biggest retailer, ASDA, with the aim of reducing the cost of beef production.
er level skills for UK’ s agri-food sector
in the heartland of the UK’ s multi-billion pound agri-food sector to and farming industries.
Lincoln at the University’ s Riseholme Campus, students will work on an agricultural field station for testing farm innovations, completing crop trials, and experimenting in agrirobotics, water management and agronomy.
The National Centre for Food Manufacturing at Holbeach in southern Lincolnshire will continue to serve as the University’ s gateway to the global food manufacturing industry, providing critical expertise on industry needs and hosting projects at its model food manufacturing plant.
The Master’ s programme will be led by Dr Ramana Sundara, who joined the University of Lincoln with more than two decades of industry experience after working with Nestle as Manager of External Research Collaborations.
“ Our students will all undertake an individual research project, either in industry or in academia,” Dr Sundara explained.“ This will give them a fantastic opportunity to specialise in their chosen field, apply new knowledge in a real-life setting, and make invaluable contacts with potential employers in the region’ s agricultural and food processing industries.
“ The food and farming sector is so important to the country, and to our county. It represents one of our largest and oldest industries and in the UK, it is currently bigger than the aerospace and automotive sectors put together. This new postgraduate programme is designed to educate the workforce of the future. It will provide a comprehensive insight into the agri-food value chain and address challenges on our doorstep which have a truly global significance. It is our aim to produce a fantastic pool of home-grown, skilled workers with innovative approaches, who can continue to drive the UK’ s agrifood industries forward.”
The new MSc in Agri-food Technology builds on the extensive BASIS and Crop Science training provided by the University for the region’ s agricultural community over many years at Riseholme. Teaching will be informed by food manufacturing research projects delivered at Holbeach, biodiversity modules in the School of Life Sciences, and the agri-robotics work of the School of Engineering and School of Computer Science. The programme will also feature a variety of guest lectures from key figures in the farming and food processing industries.
For more information on the MSc in Agri-Food Technology at the University of Lincoln, visit: www. lincoln. ac. uk / home / liat
T he beef grower feeding trial, which is being supported by specialists from ABP Ltd., will last for 12 weeks, and is expected to identify efficiencies during the grower feeding phase.
Using 24 young cattle divided into three groups, comprising a mix of Herford, Brown Swiss, Limousin and Belgian Blue crosses the trial will see one group of cattle receiving an innovative supplement which is claimed to reduce feed intake without effecting weight gain. It is hoped the trial will reveal significant financial benefits to using the supplement during the grower phase.
The project will see the students take ownership of the trial, feeding the cattle seven days a week and weighing the stock at regular intervals to calculate weight gain against the amount of feed intake.
On the trial, Jeanette Dawson OBE, Chief Executive and Principal of Bishop Burton, said;“ This trial will be incredibly interesting for both our students and our partners ASDA and ABP Ltd. Not only will the project allow our students to learn about the fundamentals of meat production, and then put them into practice, it will also enable us to work with ABP to trial new feed supplements.” www. farmingmonthly. co. uk November 2016 | Farming Monthly | 31