Leading Livestock Scientist Awarded for Work in Shaping Animal Nutrition
27 April 2012
One of
the leading scientists responsible for shaping the
livestock industry's feed and nutrition decisions
has been recognised for his outstanding contribution
to animal research.
Tim Keady, principal research officer at the Teagasc
Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre,
was awarded the Sir John Hammond Award at the
British Society of Animals Science's annual
conference at the University of Nottingham on
Tuesday (24 April).
Presented to those who to make a significant impact
to the science or development of animal production,
the award was given to Dr Keady for his work in
nutritional management of cattle and sheep.
Amongst some of his many contributions to the
livestock industries, Dr Keady has studied the
impact of silage fermentation on beef cattle's
digestion and performance and investigated ways to
improve dairy cow performance from silage-based
diets.
During his time at the dairy research team at the
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland,
he worked on projects around milk composition, dry
cow management and predicting silage feed values.
Results from these studies contributed to 'Feed into
Milk', the adopted rationing system for dairy cows
in the UK and to prediction models that determine
the feed value of silage.
As the leader of the Beef Programme at ARINI, Dr
Keady also researched breed types in terms of
growth, carcass quality and meat composition, which
assisted his work on improving efficiency of beef
production in Ireland.
Most recently at Teagasc, he has been responsible
for new research and technology transfer for
efficient sheep production in a subsidy-free
environment.
He has carried out investigations on the extended
grazing of ewes during pregnancy, the impact of
silage feed and is currently working on the effect
of grazing-management on lamb growth and carcass
quality.
Ian Givens, BSAS president, said Dr Keady was a
member of a select group of scientists who have the
ability to both do high-class research and explain
its application to farmers.
"Tim is a deserving winner if this year's award and
as the first recipient from outside of the UK, it
makes his achievement all the more impressive."
Accepting the award, Dr Keady, who has also lectured
extensively at Queen's University Belfast and the
College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise,
said it was vital animal scientists made the most of
their resources and worked hard to share their
knowledge with who needed it.
"Agriculture is seen as the recovery vehicle of our
economy," he said. "But our industry faces major
challenges.
"There will be greater demand for us to do more with
the resources we have across the entire supply
chain, which includes research scientists
transferring technology to farmers.
"If we are to meet the growing demand for food,
global agricultural research and its dissemination
into agriculture is critical.
"Our research must be exploited to the maximum.
Motivating producers with science will be critical
to scientists' capacity to meet this challenge."