Theo Quemener and Jeanne Durieu were Visiting International Research Students from L’Institut Agro Dijon who joined the UBC Animal Welfare Program for 5 months. During their stay at UBC, they lived and worked at the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre, helping AWP graduate students with their research projects. Both Theo and Jeanne are from Brittany, France and grew up on dairy farms, but wanted to gain more experience in animal behaviour and research focused on dairy cattle welfare; the UBC Dairy Centre was a perfect fit. During their visit, Theo and Jeanne also had the opportunity to learn about the Canadian dairy industry.
When asked to convey a few highlights during her stay at the UBC DERC. Jeanne said that in addition to meeting many students from other parts of the world, she loved working alongside the farmers and participating in daily chores and spending time with the calves. She also mentioned gaining valuable life experiences, such as living away from family and developing skills in teamwork and collaboration while adapting to a foreign country.
Theo emphasized how much he learned about the scientific process from working with AWP PhD student Malina Suchon. He is grateful that he was able to lead a small part of the project, which involved identifying pre-weaning factors that influence weaning performance in calves. The overall aim of the project was to identify calves more likely to struggle at weaning based on their first days of life. Theo was also involved in other projects, including working with PhD student Elizabeth Russell, where he helped collect measurements of heifer calves from commercial farms. Additionally, he was very excited to be able to practice his English in an English-speaking country!