PASTURE performance trials being conducted by Western Dairy will be taken over by a new research scientist this month.
Ya-Chun Yu, 30, joined Western Dairy on Monday and is expected to become a familiar face on South West dairy farms involved in research projects after she takes over from Dr Peter Hutton who leaves at the end of the month.
Ms Yu will inherit control of Western Dairy's WA Seed Performance (WASP) trials for a third year of comparing ryegrass seed varieties from four suppliers and different seed brands on a support block at the Kitchen family's Carenda Holsteins dairy farm and stud, Boyanup, and on the Brett family's milking platform at Dardanup.
She will also continue more recent research into Kikuyu as an irrigated summer pasture alternative with the aim of improving yield, nutrition and palatability and further exploring best practise in relation to irrigation methods and grazing rotations for the dairy industry.
Kikuyu trials are being conducted at WA College of Agriculture, Harvey, Stuart and Narelle Maughan's and Phil and Suzanne Hall's dairy farms, Harvey, and Anthony and Jenelle Commisso's dairy farm, Waterloo.
Ms Yu graduated from The University of Western Australia (UWA) in December with a Master of Agricultural Science degree, specialising in crop and livestock farming systems.
She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Chung Hsing University, the national university of Taiwan where she was born.
Since moving to Australia in 2013 she has been learning about local farming systems and has experience in conducting quantitative analyses of potassium, sodium and phosphorus in plant and water samples.
Ms Yu has worked part-time on farms in Queensland and Tasmania and for Landmark, transferring soil test data and mapping information into its agronomic system.
Last month she was a finalist at the Young Professionals in Agriculture Forum hosted by the Ag Institute Australia WA division and supported by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD).
In December she was part of a UWA delegation to a joint doctorate program signing ceremony and workshop at Nagoya University, Japan, marking the beginning of an international collaboration in agricultural sciences.
Attending last Thursday's Western Dairy Autumn Update at the WA College of Agriculture, Harvey, Ms Yu said she had a particular interest in researching pastures and forage crops.
"A lot of the pasture research (for the dairy industry) is done on the east coast, so my job will be to see what can be adapted to apply to us (in WA) as well," Ms Yu said.
Western Dairy executive officer Esther Jones welcomed Ms Yu to the team operating out of the Bunbury dairy research, development and extension (RD&E) hub.
"She comes to us with the highest references and regard from her former supervisors at UWA and she will take on the responsibility of managing the WA Seed Performance trials under the supervision of (agribusiness operations manager) Kirk Reynolds," Ms Jones said.
"The inclusion of applied local dairy science as part of the Western Dairy service offering is considered by the Western Dairy board to be of significant value to the WA dairy levy payer.
"Through our WASP trials we offer independent information about the yield and nutritional value of a range of locally available pasture seed alternatives."
Dr Hutton said he was leaving Western Dairy after two years to go on a cycling tour of central Europe with his wife Heidi.
They are planning to ride through Greece, Turkey and Georgia - formerly part of the Soviet Union - during the northern hemisphere summer.
"It's just one of those thing you have to do," Dr Hutton said.
Before joining Western Dairy, Dr Hutton, who had been a dairy farmer in the Eastern States, worked for UWA and Murdoch University on a national project investigating livestock production systems aimed at reducing methane emission levels in agriculture.
He left when the project was starved of funding under a Tony Abbott-led Federal government.
As previously reported in Farm Weekly, Western Dairy, in conjunction with Dairy Australia, took over responsibility for research on behalf of the WA dairy industry from DPIRD's predecessor, the former Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA), in July 2015.
During the previous State government's terms in office DAFWA was significantly down sized and most of its agriculture research capabilities outsourced.
The Bunbury dairy RD&E hub, the first in Australia, was created by a strategic alliance between Western Dairy, Dairy Australia and the South West Catchments Council, which accommodates the hub's three permanent staff in its office and provides administration and human resources support.
Dairy Australia initially committed to funding the hub for five years.
Last July the current State government tipped in a further $200,000 over two years to bring government support for the hub up to match Dairy Australia's five-year commitment.
While touted by Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan as "funding to attract co-investment in dairy research and development to capture milk processing and export opportunities", the level of State funding for the hub this financial year and next financial year is half what it was for the first three years.
