The race against time

By Carrie Cox

The chaotic impacts of climate change on livestock systems have brought an increasing sense of urgency to research projects within UWA’s School of Agriculture and Environment.

The mounting impacts of heat stress on animals, water availability and unseasonal weather patterns are increasingly disrupting livestock production systems grounded in routine and predictability. In a sector that contributes 40 per cent of the global value of agricultural output, producers are now turning to science for the answers to securing a sustainable future.

Working closely with the State’s agricultural producers, peak bodies and government, UWA researchers are driving a raft of major projects designed to improve agricultural yields, mitigate the effects of climate change and achieve sustainable practice while preserving animal welfare.

Lefroy Research Fellow Dr Kelsey Pool is applying reproductive biology to a range of projects designed to improve the fertility of livestock.

“If you’ve got sub-fertile animals or your reproductive reach isn’t where it should be, you’re pouring a lot of resources into animals and not getting a return on that time and investment,” Dr Pool says. “Reproductive efficiency is the key baseline for sustainability.”

Dr Pool’s research includes looking at the impacts of heat stress and oestrogenic clover (a pasture species commonly used in agriculture but linked to issues in ewe reproduction) on breeding cycles. “We’re looking at how heat stress changes the way animals reproduce and also how they behave during breeding seasons: how long do the effects last, are they chronic, and do they accumulate over time?” she says. “In terms of oestrogenic clover, we know that oestrogenic compounds can disrupt endocrine systems, so as these hostile things build up in the environment, you’re seeing it start to impact production.”

"We're looking at how heat stress changes the way animals reproduce and also how they behave during breeding seasons."

Lefroy Research Fellow Dr Kelsey Pool

Dr Pool is also carrying out research to help mitigate the unusually high mortality rate of twin-bearing ewes. “This is quite a serious issue for the industry, not just in terms of production but also from an animal welfare perspective,” she explains. “We’ve shown that melatonin implants can have a positive effect in terms of changing the foetal vascular communication between mother and bub before they’re even born. We’re targeting the early gestation phase to change the animals’ development and then also late gestation where we’re targeting the birth process.”

Researchers check reproductive outcomes in twin-bearing ewes treated with melatonin during pregnancy

Animal welfare underpins all research carried out by the School of Agriculture and Environment and driving its principles is Associate Professor Dominque Blache. A neuroscientist by profession, Associate Professor Blache believes that the happiness and wellbeing of livestock animals is not so different to — and certainly no less important than — that of humans. He says having tangible measures of animal welfare is critical to producing meaningful research.

“Without measurements, you can’t act, so we’re working on ways to tangibly measure markers of welfare — those responses to stressors that can be either physiological or behavioural,” Associate Professor Blache says. “For example, we’re in the second year of a three-year project involving sheep and the measurable benefits of giving them greater access to shade and shelter. With the help of producers right across the state and using the animals on our own UWA farm, we’re using GPS collars and temperature loggers to track animals every five minutes during the mating and lambing seasons.”

Associate Professor Blache says the backing of industry is vital to his team’s work.

“One of the biggest changes in the past 20 years is the involvement of the agricultural industry right from the stage of funding applications for research,” he said. “They love research and they want to be involved, not just for the sake of their production but for the wellbeing of their animals and because they’re now much more conscious about the environment – they know the land is fragile.”

Read the full issue of the Winter 2023 edition of Uniview [PDF 2.7Mb]. The Uniview accessible [PDF 2.9Mb] version is also available.