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Ruminant and pig nutritionist: Dave

This Case Study belongs to Animal nutritionist.

Dave has a BSc and PhD in Physiology from Reading University. Dave's father was a farmer and it was Dave's strong interest in farm animals that led him to an early interest in becoming a vet. After A-levels, Dave embarked on a degree, followed by a PhD. After completing his doctorate, he took up a postdoctoral fellowship at an agricultural college, which enabled him to work for three years on the digestive metabolism of cattle, as well as doing advisory and research work. After a further two years, the job became permanent. During this time he was mainly providing nutritional advice to other government agencies and farmers.

Ruminant and pig nutrition follows a cycle. From September to January, Dave works in an advisory capacity, providing nutritional advice on animal feed. Up to 50% of his time is concerned with providing email advice and he only rarely makes personal visits to his clients. Advice takes the form of providing nutrition supplements, rationing and identifying dietary deficiencies.

Researching animal nutition and behaviour makes up 25% of his time, with 10% of his time focused on teaching students, vets, farmers and others employed in the feed industry. The remaining time is spent attending conferences, supervising technicians on the preparation of animal food, and administration.

During the summer, Dave writes articles for research and publication, prepares teaching notes and reviews nutritional information.

Case Study sourced by Janice Smith of AGCAS, 10 June 2008.