Scholarships Source

Funded Post-Graduate Opportunity
Temporal Trends in Climate and Grass

A quantitative of temporal trends in climate and grass growth in Ireland towards the development of predictive models of grass growth.

Recent and projected trends in climatic variability brought about by climate change are and will become major factors affecting grass based systems of milk production throughout the world. With a rejuvenation of interest in grazing systems of animal production which has been borne out of consumer perception of environmental, ethical (e.g. animal welfare, genetic manipulation) , and food safety issues (e.g. residues) associated with intensive confinement production systems. With input costs, and in particular those linked to oil, forecast to rise significantly the optimal usage of grass will remain a priority for the competitive advantage of Irish systems to be maintained. A key issue associated with grazing systems is the lack of control over feed quality and availability. While there has been considerable research focused on efficient usage of grass at farm level little attention has been paid to the development of models to accurately predict grass growth to allow management systems to overcome variability of feed supply particularly in light of increased emphasis on global climate change. The objective of this project is to use longitudinal data of grass growth and climatic indicators from a number of weather stations located at various Teagasc sites throughout Ireland to identify and quantify recent trends in grass growth and climatic change and subsequently develop and validate grass growth models based on this accumulated dataset. These newly developed models will be used to determine the projected affect of climate change on grass based dairying systems in Ireland and throughout the world.

The post-graduate work is initially for an M.Sc. with the possibility of extension to a PhD. An honours degree (first class or second class grade 1) in a relevant discipline is essential and training in animal science or animal and crop production is desirable though not essential. In addition the applicant must be computer literate with strong quantitative ability. The applicant should be ambitious, self-motivated and possess an ability for problem solving.

The successful applicant will be funded under the Walsh Fellowship scheme (http://www.teagasc. ie/research/ pgradfellows. htm) and will receive an annual remuneration of €21,000 (prior to deduction of fees). M.Sc. programs are 1.5-2 years duration and PhD programs are 3 years in duration. It is envisaged that the successful applicant will begin in October 2008.

For more information or for expression of interest please contact:

Brendan Horan, Moorepark Research Centre, Fermoy, Co. Cork. Telephone: 025-42386 or email: brendan.horan@ teagasc.ie

Laurence Shalloo, Moorepark Research Centre, Fermoy, Co. Cork. Telephone: 025-42306 or email: Laurence.shalloo@ teagasc.ie

Or

Declan O Connor, Department of Mathematics, Cork Institute of Technology.
Telephone: 021-4545321 or email: declan.oconnor@ cit.ie

The closing date for applications has been extended to Friday 26th September 2008.