The Animal Welfare Program has received funding through UBC’s Work Learn International Undergraduate Research Awards (WLIURA) to hire current UBC undergraduate students in two additional positions for June 2023 to September 2023! These positions are Dairy Cattle Weaning Success Research (Agassiz) and Dairy Heifer Training and Welfare (Agassiz). Learn more about WLIURA here.
In order to apply, eligible students must log into Careers Online. Find the positions describe below on Careers Online and follow the directions to apply. If you have questions, you can reach out to us at lesley.dampier@ubc.ca.
WLIURA S23 Dairy Cattle Weaning Success Research (Agassiz) – position ID 965258
NOTE: This role will be conducted out at the UBC Dairy Education and Research Center (CERC) and on-farm at dairies in the Fraser Valley. Successful students must be available to relocate to the DERC for the duration of the project.
A critical period for calves’ health and welfare is the transition from milk to solid feed, also known as weaning. This project aims at investigating the effects of specific rearing practices (i.e., milk feeding practice, weaning protocol, disease management and housing style) on commonly used indicators of calf rearing success (i.e. growth, morbidity, mortality) on commercial dairy farms in the Fraser Valley. In this pilot study, 100 calves will be enrolled from 10 commercial dairy farms (10 calves from each farm). A calf record card will be given to the farmer to record events that occur between birth and weaning (e.g., milk feeding and weaning practices, housing conditions, instances of illness and painful procedures, medications or other treatments provided). Researchers will attend the farms at the beginning of the study to provide an orientation to farmer participants on the use of the record cards. Additionally, researchers will attend farms every two weeks from birth to three weeks after weening to collect measurements of weight and height for each calf. We hypothesize that calves fed higher milk allowances, housed in pairs or groups, and weaned gradually will perform better (i.e., better growth) before, during, and after weaning.
The student will work directly with a PhD student to gain hands-on experience in on-farm data collection, data entry, and data analysis. As part of a research team, the student will be able to give and receive daily feedback and support. The student will gain knowledge about calf rearing practices both through interactions with local dairy farmers and review of the scientific literature; they will join weekly lab meetings that cover a range of topics related to animal welfare research.
WLIURA S23 Dairy Heifer Training and Welfare (Agassiz) – 965257
NOTE: This role will be conducted out at the UBC Dairy Education and Research Center (DERC) and on-farm at dairies in the Fraser Valley. Successful students must be available to relocate to the DERC for the duration of the project.
Human-animal interactions and handling can be a major source of stress for dairy cattle, although necessary for practices such as vaccination, or artificial insemination. While training is more commonly used in other settings, such as in zoos, it remains rare on farms as training programs remain labour- and time-intensive. This project has two main goals: 1) refine a training program previously developed by researchers of our groups to reduce its duration, and 2) explore whether, once learned, the task can be applied to other contexts (e.g., at another location, or with another trainer). This project will be conducted at the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre in Agassiz (BC). 24 heifers (6 to 8 months old) will be enrolled in the training program, of which 12 will be trained to enter a chute using a positive reinforcement technique. Anticipation behaviours as well as measures of stress will be recorded in both trained and inexperienced heifers. We hypothesize that trained heifers will display more anticipation behaviours, indicating that they perceive the training as positive, and hence will show less stress responses in the chute compared to inexperienced heifers. In the following weeks, trained heifers will be asked to enter the chute again but this time with a different trainer, and later to enter a novel chute on the other side of the barn.
The student will work directly with the PhD student running the project, and will gain hands-on experience in on-farm data collection, data entry, and data analysis. The student will gain knowledge about handling of dairy cattle and training techniques, through reading scientific literature relevant to this area of research, and actively participating in the training. By working closely with the research team, the student will be able to receive daily feedback and support. Additionally, the student will be provided with the opportunity to join weekly meetings to learn more broadly about animal welfare research conducted by our group.