University students awarded 2023 WALRC scholarships

Murdoch honours student Amelia Gooding and UWA Masters of Agriculture student Dan Kierath have been announced as this year’s recipients of the WA Livestock Research Council scholarship.

Both students participated in the WALRC Farm a Friend program last year – a process that partnered them with farmers and consultants to help ground their studies in progressive farm businesses.

WALRC executive officer Esther Price said their applications came to the top of the judging process through being well aligned to research themes identified by WALRC as priorities for WA livestock producers.

“We put a strong focus on our scholarships being awarded to students whose projects are in areas that are significance to livestock producers and as such, we can expect our producers to take a strong interest in their work,” Ms Price said.

“We place a huge amount of effort into ensuring research is relevant and directly in response to the needs of our livestock producers and both Dan and Amelia have done that in spades.”

Dan’s Masters thesis will look at the impact of land use on the soil carbon profile in the WA wheatbelt, while Amelia’s project is an economic analysis of alternative legume fodder crops to finish weaners.

Ms Price said through the scholarship, WALRC will support both recipients to find a farmer mentor for the duration of their projects as well as involve them in the range of industry events.

“Our goal is to have calibre people who are well connected with our farm community working in the field of livestock agricultural science – and this scholarship is a great way of helping to achieve that,” she said.

Both Dan and Amelia will be introduced to producers at the next Livestock Matters forum which takes place on the Camarri farm at Nannup on June 23.

Ms Gooding said she felt honoured to be awarded the WALRC scholarship and was “really excited about the opportunity it brings in being able to consult a wide range of producers in conducting my honours project”.

When asked what she hoped to do in the future after her studies were completed she said “I don’t know what exactly I want to do in the future, just that I want to work in the agriculture industry in a role that allows me to continuously learn”.

Mr Kierath said he didn’t know exactly where he would end up, “but I hope to make a positive contribution to the ability of West Australian producers to serve the increasing global food demand”.