Max has long term plans to extend his honours research with a PhD and to branch into consultancy but for now is gaining real-world experience back on the family farm. Surrounded by family members with diverse careers in the agriculture sector, Max and his father are making the most of the technology and expertise available to them to run their business to the optimum level.
‘My first year full-time on the farm has seen us cope with some out of left field animal health challenges and low rainfall but it’s been very rewarding to work with my family to build business resilience.’
The challenges of running a family business will hold Max in good stead for his future plans and give him credibility in the world of consulting, allowing him to fuse the academic and practical aspects of agriculture.
Danila is originally a city kid whose first interaction with agriculture was as a 9 year old and her family bought a small property and started a little hobby farm where they had chickens, cattle, sheep and goats. Danila had always loved animals and attributes the hobby farm to sparking her interest in agriculture. The agriculture sector will be forever grateful she answered the call to country.
University of New England post-doctoral fellow Danila Marini was guest speaker at the Angaston Ag Bureau hogget competition, on training sheep in virtual fencing systems.
Sheep can be trained to remain within virtual fencing systems in the same way as cattle, according to University of New England post-doctoral fellow Danila Marini.
That is the promising early result the NSW based Uni and CSIRO has found, with sheep wearing collars responding to audio cues within three to six interactions.
Dr Marini was a guest speaker at the Livestock E-Technology for Natural Resources Management seminar, held by the Angaston Agricultural Bureau and the Society for Precision Agriculture Australia, on Friday March 23.
She is part of a team of researchers working on the three-year virtual fencing project and hopes to develop ethical training protocol for sheep.
She says Agersens is close to commercialising the technology in cattle, but far less is known about the ability to train sheep to remain within the electric fields.
The biggest challenge for sheep will be developing an ear tag or other device to deliver the electrical stimulus.
“Australia has a lot of Merinos which grow wool so a collar won’t work by itself ,’ she said.
Dr Marini’s project is now turning to finding the optimal percentage of the flock which will need collars for effective fencing, and also whether lambs can be trained with their mothers.
Danila also outlined a couple of other projects she is involved; one in SA with the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources looking at using virtual collars on sheep for weed management and another with Dairy Australia looking at grazing management of dairy cattle.
