Understanding of livestock nutrition has grown exponentially over the past 40 years, and a biennial conference hosted by UNE has been a key forum for sharing the latest research across those important decades.

When the latest Recent Advances in Animal Nutrition – Australia conference kicks off on Wednesday October 24, it will be the 21st time that UNE has been the focal point for experts from the scientific community and leaders in industry who want to discuss contemporary issues in animal nutrition, and to explore future trends across disciplines.

This conference is unique in Australia in facilitating interaction between the commercial and research sectors of the animal nutrition community and in promoting discussion and debate on recent advances in animal nutrition.

The event showcases advances in nutritional science in the poultry, pig and ruminant industries, presenting these findings to the national feed and feed ingredients industries. 

This year, the 21st Conference, brings national specialists such as Prof. John Furness (University of Melbourne) and UNE’s Emeritus Prof. Ron Leng to describe the role of gut microbes in biofilm activity and the health and performance of the host animal.

International specialists such as Luis Tedeschi (from Texas A&M University) and Hans Stein (Univ. Illinois) will explore advances in cattle and poultry feeding specifically. 

The conference aligns with UNE making a major investment in upgrading infrastructure and capability for animal nutrition.

In partnership with MLA, through the MLA donor company scheme, UNE is upgrading its feed processing capability at its “Tulllimba” research feedlot to bring the grain processing in line with current commercial practice. 

UNE has also committed to further upgrading on-campus animal research facilities within its Centre for Animal Research and Teaching to increase the scale and capability of research infrastructure in 2018. 

RAAN committee member, Prof. Roger Hegarty said “it is encouraging that UNE places such a priority on developing teaching and research for Australia’s livestock industries. Nutrition in particular needs fundamental development to increase global food supply and security and conference such as RAAN help our Australian industries to ruse to that opportunity.”

The conference runs from Wednesday 25-27 October at UNE’s Belshaw lecture theatre with over 100 delegates. More details about the RAAN conference can be found here.

IMAGE: UNE property Tullimba feedlot, an important facility for advancing understanding of ruminant nutrition.