Apply for a Work Learn International Undergraduate Research Award (WLIURA) to work at the UBC Dairy Education and Research Center (DERC)
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 […]
AWP Students Share Their Work at the 40th Anniversary of the Western Canadian Dairy Seminar
Last week, in early March 2023, the Animal Welfare Program (AWP) participated in the 40th anniversary of the Western Canadian Dairy Seminar (WCDS) in Red Deer, Alberta. After 3 years of COVID-related disturbances, the WCDS was again held in person with the theme ‘Building on 40 years of Dairy Extension’. The WCDS is an opportunity […]
Individual variability in response to social stress in dairy heifers
Congratulations to Emeline Nogues for publishing her first paper with the Animal Welfare Program, together with PhD candidate Benjamin Lecorps, in Animals! The paper, ‘Individual variability in response to social stress in dairy heifers’, examined whether it is better to engage or avoid social interactions when mixed with older cows. Mixing unfamiliar animals (or regrouping) […]
Hannah Spitzer awarded Canadian Society of Animal Science Award for Undergraduate Achievement
Congratulations to Hannah Spitzer, an undergraduate student in LFS who recently won the 2020 Canadian Society of Animal Science Award for Undergraduate Achievement. Hannah is currently an NSERC Undergraduate scholar, doing research out at UBC’s Dairy Centre in Agassiz under the supervision of Dr. Nina von Keyserlingk. Learn more about Hannah as one of our class of […]
The Influence of Different Types of Outdoor Access on Dairy Cattle Behavior
New review paper from the Animal Welfare Program in Frontiers in Veterinary Science reviews the existing literature on how access to outdoor areas can influence dairy cattle behavior. Read the article: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00257/full
Investigating empathy in dairy calves
Recent research conducted at the University of British Columbia’s Animal Welfare Program has investigated empathy in dairy calves. In this study, published in PLoS ONE, calves witnessed two ‘demonstrators’ pen mates recover from different procedures: one from a common painful surgery (disbudding, which is the prevention of horn growth by cauterisation) and the other from […]
What Difference Does a Visit Make? Changes in Animal Welfare Perceptions after Interested Citizens Tour a Dairy Farm
The UBC study on animal welfare perceptions following a dairy centre tour is amongst the top 10% most cited PLOS ONE papers published in 2016. Read full article Abstract Citizens’ concerns about farm animal welfare are often dismissed on the assumption that they are not well informed about farming practices. We conducted exploratory surveys of […]
UBC Dairy Research Centre Featured in Ubyssey Video
Editors from UBC’s student newspaper, The Ubyssey, visited the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre last month. They took some great video footage of our student researchers in action, and interviewed PhD candidate Tracy Burnett (Applied Animal Biology) on how the work we do impacts the lives of dairy animals, and benefits Canadian dairy farmers. […]