Development of a new diet to improve insulin sensitivity and manage weight in healthy cats. This project will determine if a low carbohydrate, moderate fat, high protein diet improves insulin sensitivity and reduces weight gain in cats compared to a typical high-carbohydrate grocery line diet. It will identify risk factors for weight gain such as increased fasting insulin concentration and will also determine which simple assessment of insulin sensitivity best correlates with insulin sensitivity ....Development of a new diet to improve insulin sensitivity and manage weight in healthy cats. This project will determine if a low carbohydrate, moderate fat, high protein diet improves insulin sensitivity and reduces weight gain in cats compared to a typical high-carbohydrate grocery line diet. It will identify risk factors for weight gain such as increased fasting insulin concentration and will also determine which simple assessment of insulin sensitivity best correlates with insulin sensitivity measured by a gold standard. This project should lead to the formulation of a diet designed to improve insulin sensitivity and minimize weight gain in cats, and allow for earlier identification of cats at risk of obesity.Read moreRead less
Establishment of a viable sheep dairy industry in Australia. Australia imports some $10 million/year of sheep dairy products, and has a fledgling sheep milking industry. The industry needs practical management strategies to maximise returns from milk and lambs under Australian conditions. We also need to develop typical Australian sheep dairy products. This project will:
o investigate techniques to select dairy sheep from large unselected flocks
o examine management strategies to maximise ret ....Establishment of a viable sheep dairy industry in Australia. Australia imports some $10 million/year of sheep dairy products, and has a fledgling sheep milking industry. The industry needs practical management strategies to maximise returns from milk and lambs under Australian conditions. We also need to develop typical Australian sheep dairy products. This project will:
o investigate techniques to select dairy sheep from large unselected flocks
o examine management strategies to maximise returns from milk and lambs
o study udder morphology and milk ejection patterns in dairy sheep
o develop specialty sheep milk dairy products and
o determine their acceptance by consumers by conducting market surveys.
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Strength in uniformity - novel clonal technologies for a more productive avocado industry. Cost and time efficient clonal propagation protocols to multiply elite avocado rootstocks for increased productivity is a major industry gap. This project will develop novel approaches coupling tissue culture with recent advances in root induction, which will profitably deliver large numbers of uniform and high yielding avocado plants to national and international growers.
CropVision: A next-generation system for predicting crop production. Accurate and timely production estimates are essential to Australia’s grain producers and industry to better deal with down side risk caused by climate extremes and market volatilities. However, current systems for predicting crop production are inaccurate and unreliable. This project aims to develop a next generation system for advance and high accuracy predictions for yield, crop type and area at field scale. This will be don ....CropVision: A next-generation system for predicting crop production. Accurate and timely production estimates are essential to Australia’s grain producers and industry to better deal with down side risk caused by climate extremes and market volatilities. However, current systems for predicting crop production are inaccurate and unreliable. This project aims to develop a next generation system for advance and high accuracy predictions for yield, crop type and area at field scale. This will be done by integrating the state of the art global climate models (GCM), biophysical crop modelling, and high-resolution earth observation technologies. This project will deliver a next generation crop prediction system to predict crop production at field scale for improved decision-making and enhancing resilience.Read moreRead less
Novel Propagation and Conservation Technologies for Australian Macadamia. Australia’s $850M macadamia industry is a booming contributor to regional growth with a strong domestic market niche. However the industry is threatened by a severe plant supply bottleneck. Also wild germplasm for breeding is threatened with extinction. This project aims to innovate world-first tissue culture technologies for macadamia propagation and secure cryo-storage of germplasm, aided by cutting edge genomics. Expect ....Novel Propagation and Conservation Technologies for Australian Macadamia. Australia’s $850M macadamia industry is a booming contributor to regional growth with a strong domestic market niche. However the industry is threatened by a severe plant supply bottleneck. Also wild germplasm for breeding is threatened with extinction. This project aims to innovate world-first tissue culture technologies for macadamia propagation and secure cryo-storage of germplasm, aided by cutting edge genomics. Expected outcomes of these new, cross-disciplinary techniques are on-demand supply of superior trees to growers and the protection of invaluable germplasm. This should provide significant benefits for industry growth, food security and conservation de-risked from global change.Read moreRead less
Model guided design of advanced microalgae production systems. This project aims to improve the efficiency of advanced single-celled green algae (microalgae) production systems which can produce a wide range of high-value products including renewable fuels and animal feeds. Such systems are able to expand photosynthetic capacity onto non-arable land using carbon dioxide and saline water. However, production efficiencies and costs are currently limited by the ability to capture and distribute lig ....Model guided design of advanced microalgae production systems. This project aims to improve the efficiency of advanced single-celled green algae (microalgae) production systems which can produce a wide range of high-value products including renewable fuels and animal feeds. Such systems are able to expand photosynthetic capacity onto non-arable land using carbon dioxide and saline water. However, production efficiencies and costs are currently limited by the ability to capture and distribute light through these systems effectively. This project aims to optimise methods of light delivery and distribution through photo-bioreactors and high rate ponds. This knowledge is intended to be integrated into advanced modelling tools to enable model-guided design of next-generation high-efficiency systems.Read moreRead less
Early life nutrition to improve feed efficiency in commercial dairy goats. This project aims to improve the productivity and welfare and reduce resource waste in commercial dairy goat kids. The Australian dairy goat industry is expanding (~20% per annum) yet there is little research to overcome hurdles to improving milk and meat production. There is also increased societal pressure to improve sustainability, reduce waste and maintain animal welfare. By investigating nutritional methods to improv ....Early life nutrition to improve feed efficiency in commercial dairy goats. This project aims to improve the productivity and welfare and reduce resource waste in commercial dairy goat kids. The Australian dairy goat industry is expanding (~20% per annum) yet there is little research to overcome hurdles to improving milk and meat production. There is also increased societal pressure to improve sustainability, reduce waste and maintain animal welfare. By investigating nutritional methods to improve productivity of male (for meat) and female (for milk) kids, this project will generate new knowledge relevant to Australian and international goat production systems. This project will assist goat producers to make decisions that maximise animal productivity with flow on benefits to manufacturers of goat products. Read moreRead less
Solving smoke taint: Overcoming the impacts of vineyard exposure to smoke. Vineyard exposure to bushfire smoke can taint grapes, causing significant revenue losses where smoky, ashy characters render wine unsaleable. Smoke taint therefore remains an ongoing threat to the viability of the wine industry. This project aims to safeguard grape and wine quality by building the wine industry’s capacity to predict, mitigate and respond to risk associated with vineyard smoke exposure. Expected outcomes i ....Solving smoke taint: Overcoming the impacts of vineyard exposure to smoke. Vineyard exposure to bushfire smoke can taint grapes, causing significant revenue losses where smoky, ashy characters render wine unsaleable. Smoke taint therefore remains an ongoing threat to the viability of the wine industry. This project aims to safeguard grape and wine quality by building the wine industry’s capacity to predict, mitigate and respond to risk associated with vineyard smoke exposure. Expected outcomes include establishing the mechanism by which smoke compounds are taken up by grapes and the factors that influence their sensory impact on wine. The development of innovative and interdisciplinary strategies for detecting and alleviating smoke taint will deliver important economic benefit to the Australian wine sector.Read moreRead less
Genomic basis of clonal variation in Cabernet Sauvignon wine grapes. The commercial practice of vegetative propagation results in novel clones through discrete mutations, creating challenges for horticultural and wine industries. This project will use cutting edge molecular profiling to design methods to map the identity of grapevines in whole vineyards, enabling industry to capture this variation for crop improvement.
Halophytes for high-saline agriculture: optimising performance and understanding physiology. The recent drought has shaved off up to 1 per cent of Australia's economic growth and resulted in losses of over $6 billion in crop and livestock production. At the same time, very large volumes of water with impaired chemical quality are generated by industry and municipal water treatment processes. In most cases, these cannot be used directly for crop irrigation and have to be disposed of at extreme co ....Halophytes for high-saline agriculture: optimising performance and understanding physiology. The recent drought has shaved off up to 1 per cent of Australia's economic growth and resulted in losses of over $6 billion in crop and livestock production. At the same time, very large volumes of water with impaired chemical quality are generated by industry and municipal water treatment processes. In most cases, these cannot be used directly for crop irrigation and have to be disposed of at extreme cost and waste. This project will utilise halophytes as 'alternative cash crops' to use the saline water produced by the coal seam gas operations in the Surat Basin area in Queensland. This will result in a saving of at least $48 million over the five years of operation.Read moreRead less