Maximising Livestock Production Through Feed Efficiency – Free Workshop

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) is supporting a free two day workshop for those working in livestock production, breeding, nutrition and research which will highlight the outputs from a four year RuminOmics research project.

RuminOmics is an EU-funded project that aims to increase the efficiency - and decrease the environmental footprint - of the farming of ruminant livestock, and to significantly advance current knowledge about this area.

The project, which began in 2012, uses state-of-the-art technologies to understand how ruminant gastrointestinal microbial ecosystems - called microbiomes - are controlled by the host animal. It also looks at the diet of the animals, and how this impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, efficiency and product quality.

The aim of the project is to develop new models and tools to enable the livestock industry to reduce environmental impact from methane and nitrogen emissions, and to improve the nutritional efficiency of the feeds being used.

As one of the 11 partners in this project, QMS has organised a workshop to provide an overview of outputs from the RuminOmics project.

It will also offer a forum for discussion on how these can be used to inform animal breeding, feeding and management to lower the environmental footprint of ruminant livestock production and improve feed conversion efficiency and product quality.

The workshop will be held on 10 and 11 November, at the Norton House Hotel, Edinburgh.

The deadline for registrations is Friday 30 October 2015.

Day 1 of the event will be targeted at the livestock sector and its support industries and will include presentations from those working in the livestock sector both in Scotland and across Europe.

The speakers will cover subjects such as the environmental impact of ruminant livestock production, challenges for the dairy and meat sectors in northern Europe and future perspectives for ruminant nutrition and the feed industry. The workshop is intended to be interactive and there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss how the outputs from the RuminOmics project can be implemented practically.

Day 2 will concentrate on detailed results from various components of the project and will be targeted at those in research, technical advisory and education/training. Topics include:

Keynote lectures on microbial ecology and the link between rumen microbes, the animal genome and environmental impact, nutrition, efficiency and emissions and a field-scale study of rumen function, efficiency and emissions in 1000 dairy cows.

The full programme and details on how to book can be found at: http://www.ruminomics.eu/index.php/regional-workshop-edinburgh/