Food and Ag news December 2014

Volume 1 December 2014

The magazine for University of Melbourne Agriculture and Food Science Alumni

www.fvas.unimelb.edu.au

2015 year of Soils International

in this issue Welcome from the Dean

Geoffrey Leeper soil scientist

The connection between agriculture and veterinary science

Waste becomes a resource The challenges of carbon sequestration

From paddock to plate: with Professor Robyn Warner Measuring our nitrogen footprint

Student profile: Lucy Collins Reunions, lectures and scholarships

Alumni awards Agriculture and Food News December 2014 1

year of soils

contents Welcome from the Dean

3

The connection between agriculture and veterinary science 4

2015: International

year of Soils Soils are a finite natural resource and are non-renewable on a human time scale. Soils are the foundation for food, animal feed, fuel and natural fibre production, the supply of clean water, nutrient cycling and a range of ecosystem functions.

The area of fertile soils covering the world’s surface is limited, and is increasingly subject to degradation, poor management and loss to urbanisation.

Increased awareness of the lifesupporting functions of soil is required if this trend is to be reversed, in order to enable the levels of food production necessary to meet the demands of population levels predicted for 2050.

The International Year of Soils 2015 will increase awareness and understanding of the importance of soil for food security and essential ecosystem functions.

The specific objectives are to: • Raise full awareness among civil society and decision makers about the profound importance of soil for human life; • Educate the public about the crucial role soil plays in food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation, essential ecosystem services, poverty alleviation and sustainable development; • Support effective policies and actions for the sustainable management and protection of soil resources;

Geoffrey Leeper: soil scientist

5

Waste becomes a resource

6

The challenges of carbon sequestration 7 From paddock to plate

8

Measuring our nitrogen footprint

10

Alumni awards

12

Student profile

11

Reunions, lectures

15

• Promote investment in sustainable soil management activities to develop and maintain healthy soils for different land users and population groups; • Strengthen initiatives in connection with the SDG process (Sustainable Development Goals) and Post-2015 agenda; • Advocate for rapid capacity enhancement for soil information collection and monitoring at all levels (global, regional and national).

Commemorating the International Year of Soils, this issue includes a selection of research undertaken by the Faculty’s soil scientists.

Left: This highly disturbed soil was photographed in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The soil has developed on the ‘Brighton group’ – sands of Tertiary age. The horizon boundaries are quite clear, with a dark grey sand (A1) over a light grey sand (A2) which abruptly changes to a brown, red and grey mottled heavy clay (B2).

Photo: Tony Weatherley

Agriculture & Food is produced by the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, the University of Melbourne. December 2014.

CRICOS Code: 00116K General Enquiries: Telephone 03 8344 8154 Web: fvas.unimelb.edu.au For alumni or general enquiries regarding stories in this publication, contact Jeffrey Topp 03 8344 8154 or jtopp@unimelb.edu.au Join the alumni web community and update your records at: www.unimelb.edu.au/alumni

2 Agriculture and Food News December 2014

welcome

Welcome

from the Dean It has been a landmark year for the University of Melbourne and one of many exciting changes.

Change always brings with it some challenges, but seeing the achievements of our academic team, our students and our alumni over the last year I am confident we are well positioned to meet those challenges as we move together into the future.

In July the University moved to align the disciplines of Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Sciences and established the new Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, the fifth largest faculty at the University. As the new Faculty our teaching and research activities encompass on-farm animal and plant production, food systems and soil science, veterinary science and bioscience. By bringing together these complementary disciplines we can create better cohesion across our courses and strengthen our capabilities in teaching, research and technology development.

Our Bachelor of Agriculture is a good example of a program that has already seen the benefits of our collaborative teaching. In 2013 the degree was expanded and the Faculty of Veterinary Science began teaching the Production Animal Health major as an option for students interested in animal health, welfare and productivity. Overall interest and enrolments in the Bachelor of Agriculture have now increased more than three fold over the past three years and we will continue to expand the number of places available in the Bachelor of Agriculture course to meet demand.

We are in the process of completing extensive consultation with our alumni, employers and key stakeholders on the desired day one graduate attributes for the Bachelor of Agriculture. Expect to hear more about our responses to this important feedback as we consider how best to train the agricultural scientists of tomorrow.

Other courses for which the new faculty has responsibility include the Diploma in General Studies (a pathway into University of Melbourne degrees), Masters specialisations in Agribusiness, Agricultural Sciences, Food Science, Food and Packaging Innovation, the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a broad range of degree and research options.

I’d like to acknowledge and thank former Dean of the Melbourne School of Land and Environment, Professor Rick Roush for his leadership and his contributions to teaching and research. Professor Roush has been appointed Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in the United States. While sad to farewell Rick from Melbourne, we are delighted at this prestigious appointment and we wish him all the best.

I now have the honour of being the first Dean of the new Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Melbourne and in this role I am keen to expand on our strong engagement with industry and on exploring the ways we can expand our research and teaching activities. I grew up in rural Victoria and spent much of my youth working on my grandparents’ sheep farm near Hamilton in western Victoria before going on to a career in Veterinary Science. These experiences have given me a great appreciation of the vital role agriculture plays in the history and the future of Australia.

I am excited about the wide range of research, teaching and learning opportunities in the new Faculty and of course you remain an integral stakeholder in our future. We are committed to remaining engaged with you as we shape the future of veterinary and agricultural sciences at Australia’s leading University.

Please feel free to contact me with any comments, questions or suggestions.

Professor Ken Hinchcliff Dean, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences

Agriculture and Food News December 2014 3

faculty news

The Connection between agriculture and veterinary science

The connection between agriculture and veterinary science is not a new one, with shared teaching and research collaboration common among researchers. While formal union was proposed in the past, it didn’t progress until this year. Peculiarly though, with the creation of the expanded Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, Professor Ken Hinchcliff has become the third person to have been Dean of both areas of study.

The Faculty of Agriculture admitted its first student in 1906. Renowned botanist Alfred Ewart served as Dean of Agriculture in 1919 after having previously served as Dean of Veterinary Science (1916-17). His connection with these disciplines arose from his research into weed biology and stock poisoning. This work saw him travel the overland stock routes in central and northern Australia for several months in 1924. Again in 1927, his investigations into the metabolic disease of horses ‘walkabout’ took him to remote Australia, particularly the Kimberley, a trip which was then a most arduous and demanding undertaking.

In the years when the undergraduate veterinary science degree was suspended (1928-1962) and students could commence a first year in Science and then complete their studies at either the

Samuel Wadham

University of Sydney or the University of Queensland, several professors from allied areas acted as notional Deans of Veterinary Science; with Professor Ewart again in the role from 1932-37. Professor Ewart was also active in forestry and the education of foresters in Victoria from 1908. He took an interest in the establishment of the Forestry School at Creswick in 1910, and as chairman of its examination board for more than 29 years had a major influence on the curriculum. In 1925, his Handbook of Forest Trees for Victorian Foresters was published by the Victorian Forests Commission.

Samuel Wadham, Dean of Agriculture 1927-1957, succeeded Ewart as Dean of Veterinary Science in 1938. During the 1950s, he played a prominent role as the University considered the re-establishment of undergraduate veterinary teaching.

Alfred Ewart

4 Agriculture and Food News December 2014

profile

Geoffrey Leeper Academic and Soil Scientist

Geoffrey Leeper’s career as a soil scientist and his contribution to soil science relate mainly to soil chemistry, soil surveying and classification, his overall high standards and his commitment to a scientist’s responsibility to write clearly.

His academic achievements were firstclass and strengthened his naturally high intellect. Leeper’s career as a scientist began with a BSc at the University of Melbourne (1924) followed by a MSc in organic chemistry (1926). He worked briefly at the Commonwealth Explosives Factory in Maribyrnong (1925-26), at the University of Adelaide as a lecturer in organic chemistry in 1927, and at the Rowett Research Institute in Animal Nutrition in the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1929. In 1930 he returned to the University of Melbourne as a research scholar in chemistry in the Faculty of Agriculture (1930-32). He was appointed lecturer in Agricultural Chemistry (1933-45), became Associate Professor in Agricultural Chemistry (1946-62), and was appointed to a personal chair in Agricultural Chemistry (1962), before retiring in 1970.

On his return to the University of Melbourne he was encouraged by Professor Wadham to take his interest in soils further. He became involved in soil surveying with CSIRO at Tresco in the Mallee and at Mt Gellibrand and Berwick.

With time, he became interested not only in manganese but also in other trace elements and soil classification.

In the early years of his career, Leeper became increasingly unhappy with the soil classifications of the day, and almost single-handedly took on the establishment by proposing that soils be classified on the basis of properties observable in the field, not guesses about how they formed. In the 1960s Keith Northcote, a former student, developed a widely popular and simple-to-use factual key for the recognition of soils.

This key has recently been replaced with a new classification scheme.

Leeper’s first paper on manganese was a letter to Nature in 1934 in which he outlined a method of determination for the availability of manganese in soil in relation to soil pH. He proposed that plants could make use of insoluble reactive oxides of manganese by the process of contact reduction. Leeper was one of the first soil scientists to apply Eh-pH diagrams to soil chemistry.

However, by the time they had become popular in the 1950s and 1960s he realised they had serious limitations when applied to the behaviour of manganese in soils.

Leeper’s contribution to our understanding of manganese in soils was acknowledged at the International Symposium on ‘Manganese in Soils and Plants’ (Adelaide, 1988) by the dedication to him of the section on ‘Manganese in Soils’ in the proceedings of the symposium.

Geoffrey Leeper’s gargoyle on the Evan Burge Building at Trinity College.

Sculpted by Peter Corlett, photographed

by Joe Vittorio

As a referee and editor Leeper demanded high standards, but they were not unreasonable and no more than he would apply to his own writing. His contribution to the societies of which he was a member has been recognised: RACI an Honorary Life Fellow, AIAS a Fellow, ANZAAS a Fellow, and the Royal Society of Victoria a Life Member.

In retirement he was an Emeritus Professor of the University of Melbourne. Also, he was Associate Editor of Meanjin Quarterly (1972-73), Consultant Editor for Western Port Bay Environment Study (1974-75), and consultant on heavy metal behaviour in soils to Sheaffer and Roland Inc., Chicago, USA (1973-77).

In the early years of his career, Leeper became increasingly unhappy with the soil classifications of the day, and almost single-handedly took on the establishment by proposing that soils be classified on the basis of properties observable in the field, not guesses about how they formed.

Following his death in 1986, the Soil Science Society and the University of Melbourne determined to acknowledge the many contributions Geoffrey Leeper had made to the those he made contact with, whether they were students, fellow academics, disgruntled authors, soil surveyors, agronomists, ecologists, gardeners, musicians, foresters or agricultural economists.

He made considerable impact through his activities as an author of scientific papers and books, as an editor of books, as an examiner of theses, and as a referee for scientific journals, particularly JAIAS, AJAR, AJSR, and the proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria.

More information on Geoffrey Leeper may be read at the Australian Dictionary of Biography: http://adb.anu.edu. au/biography/leeper-geoffreywinthrop-14164

The annual Geoffrey Leeper Memorial Lecture recognises his lasting influence.

Prepared from some private notes and other sources by Nick Uren.

Agriculture and Food News December 2014 5

research

Waste becomes a resource Right now, some food in your fridge is edging from the classification of “I think this is still ok”’ towards “beyond human consumption”.

Sometimes our best-intentioned culinary missions miss that window of opportunity. The diligent amongst us re-purpose foods like over-ripe bananas to banana bread or compost.

But food waste is not just your forgotten food and restaurant slops; it includes the food that doesn’t even make it to the dinner table. There is food wastage at every stage of our modern food production system: from harvesting at the farm, storage and to the displays at the supermarket. Consumer perceptions play an important role. That odd shaped and slightly blemished, yet fresh and edible, apple you deem unworthy of purchase contributes to the 20 million tonnes of Australian landfill annually. Food waste in landfill is an enormous source of green house gases like methane and CO2.

Could we turn an entire city’s food waste into a soil resource? The value of food waste for land application is still largely unknown. It’s a timely research question for 2015’s International Year of Soils and Dr Tony Weatherley, a soil scientist within the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences has received an award from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation to start finding the answer to this scientific question, which will also be one of infrastructure and logistics.

Dr Weatherley describes how he landed this exciting research project, entitled ‘An evaluation of the potential of food waste as a soil conditioner’.

“It’s a rather interesting story as to how I got involved in this area. A couple of events coincided,” he said.

6 Agriculture and Food News December 2014

“Firstly there was a local council initiative to participate in a composting trial. I chose the compost bin option rather than the worm farm approach thinking it would be more of a set and forget. But composting doesn’t work like that – when I found I didn’t have enough food waste and it didn’t reach the right temperature, I became fascinated.

At the same time a city restaurant, Cecconis, approached my colleague and me, as, they wanted to ‘close the loop’ when it came to food production.

That is, they wanted to use great fresh product, return the food waste to the soil and then grow more great vegies. They had purchased a composting unit that transforms all the food waste from the restaurant into a potential ‘soil conditioner’ (at least that’s what we’d call it) and they wanted to know how to optimise its effectiveness,” Dr Weatherley said.

“It turned out the City of Melbourne, University of Melbourne student union and several other city restaurants were attempting to recycle food waste using similar technologies. So this research will determine the types of soils that will benefit from food waste application and most importantly how often the waste might be applied to soil. It will also assess things like odours, greenhouse gases, contaminants, and the availability of nutrients like phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen to soil and plants.

Dr Tony Weatherley

We are particularly keen about examining the role of fungi on soil chemistry,” Dr Weatherley said.

“The research program has just started and our Burnley campus will be involved in small plot evaluations. Initially we intend to study the role of food waste in returning phosphorus to the soil and its affect on phosphorus use efficiency for plants, which may help to address future scarcity of this element.”

So what would Dr Weatherley like us to ponder during the International Year of Soils?

“Soil is a dynamic living thing. Soils have a tipping point just as with our own health, beyond a certain point soil can’t be repaired or replenished – it’s not an unlimited resource. Understanding soil science is more important than ever, our future environmental and economic wellbeing depends on it. We can’t keep treating soil like dirt, pun intended.”

Andi Horvath

carbon sequestration

the challenges of carbon sequestration A lot more carbon is stored in soils than in the atmosphere, so it follows that if we could only get the soil to store a little bit more carbon, we would be on track to reverse climate change.

Professor Deli Chen, head of the soils group, says Australia has a lot of land and therefore a lot of soil.

“The organic carbon stored in the soil, if you add it up, it’s a huge quantity,” he says.

“Imagine if you could increase the soil organic carbon by a small proportion – one percent – you will solve the problem.”

This is the thinking behind the Federal Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative which has recently been rolled into the new Emissions Reduction Fund. Farmers are paid if they change their farming practices in a way that locks up more carbon in the soil.

Common options include residue retention, conservation tillage, conversion to pasture and the use of extra fertiliser.

It sounds like the perfect solution, but Dr Shu Kee (Raymond) Lam from the soils group says studies into the effectiveness of these methods of carbon sequestration are inconclusive.

“There are so many studies, but some studies say ‘yes’, some studies say ‘no’,” says Dr Lam. Because of these inconsistencies, Dr Lam, Professor Chen and their colleagues Professors Rick Roush and Arvin Mosier did a meta-analysis of 30 years’ worth of Australian studies into carbon sequestration in agricultural soils.

“In the deeper layers it is not significant.

And the effect of this increase is more profound in the first ten years of management practice.”

This is not enough to make a significant impact on climate change.

The paper, titled ‘The potential for carbon sequestration in Australian agricultural soils is technically and economically limited’, was published in Nature Scientific Reports.

The researchers also did a simple economic assessment of the benefit to farmers of carbon farming by calculating the cost of adding nitrogen fertiliser to stabilise the additional carbon in soils.

“If you don’t have the nitrogen to stabilise it, the extra carbon will just go back to the atmosphere,” says Dr Lam. And once again the findings were not good.

They categorised the studies according to soil depth and the duration of management practice. Dr Lam says these are the two main factors that vary in the literature.

“We found that if we include the cost of fertiliser nitrogen to stabilise the carbon, compared to the carbon credit the farmers can earn from the Carbon Farming Initiative, there is a net financial loss,” says Dr Lam.

“And what we found is that we observe a 10 percent increase in soil carbon, but only in the top 10 cm of soil,” he said.

“To break even the carbon price would have to be set at $36 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent. I think at

the moment the carbon price under the Carbon Farming Initiative is around $24.

“And because of that we concluded that the potential of carbon sequestration in Australian agricultural soils is, firstly, technically limited, because it’s only 10 percent in the top 10 cm for 10 years, and second of all, economically it will result in a net loss.”

Professor Chen says the results were ‘confronting’, and put a big question mark over the value of the Carbon Farming Initiative.

“It sounds really attractive,” he says.

“Through agricultural practices we can increase the carbon sequestration.

Therefore we don’t have to do anything else. But in reality, as soil scientists, we know it’s very limited.”

“Increasing soil carbon is good for the fertility and productivity of soils, so has long been a goal of cropping, even though the financial benefits are hard to calculate,” Professor Chen added.

Dr Lam hopes the International Year of Soils raises people’s awareness of the importance of soils and the impact our actions have on soils.

“What we are eating, it comes from soil,” he says.

Daryl Holland

Agriculture and Food News December 2014 7

research

understanding the biochemistry

from paddock to Andi Horvath speaks with Professor Robyn Warner who was recently recruited by the Faculty.

Robyn Warner is one of those inspiring academics who exude infectious curiosity and have a genuine passion for solving scientific problems. With her team, she investigates the biochemistry and microstructure underpinning the colour, flavour and texture of meat, in order to understand how to improve them to support the future of a sustainable meat industry.

Most of us get a little squeamish if we stop and think about the journey from cow to the gourmet burger we have for lunch.

Yet it is the work done by Professor Warner’s team, in understanding the biochemistry of meat from paddock to plate, that has been instrumental in ensuring our beef, lamb and pork products are of the highest quality. There have also been animal welfare benefits, as her research has shown the use of

8 Agriculture and Food News December 2014

slaughterhouse prodders actually made meat tougher. Whether you eat meat or not, these are important contributions to society and the global food industries.

Professor Warner has also become the first woman to receive the International Lectureship award in 2014 from the American Meat Science Association.

This award honours individuals for internationally recognised contributions in the field of meat science and technology as well as active leadership, promotion and dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of society.

A pivotal point in her career was becoming a founding member of the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) Scientific committee, whose aim was to translate scientific research into meat industry improvements. The group’s activities also revised meat-grading systems that were underpinned by science and ultimately resulted in increased economic returns to producers, processors and retailers.

It’s a lab-bench to kitchen bench success story.

Professor Warner describes the odd sequence of events that led to her involvement with meat research science.

“When I was at school it didn’t occur to me to study agricultural science. It was one of those last-minute decisions when I was applying for university courses,” she said.

“When I graduated I didn’t even think of a research career, as my professors implied it was extremely hard to get into, and it was only for the top brainy students.

So, I applied for a traineeship with the Department of Agriculture, and was asked to pick from 40 different traineeships.

I had my heart set on working with dairy farmers at various locations like Warrnambool, Echuca and Leongatha.

Then out of the blue, they asked if I was interested in a job doing research on beef quality in cattle at Werribee.

research

Professor Warner has also become the first woman to receive the International Lectureship award in 2014 from the American Meat Science Association.“

plate Once again I made a last minute change and said yes I’ll do that, and I did.

“I tell this story to young people as I think it illustrates that you can often not even guess the path you’ll take in your career.”

Professor Warner’s path, like so many other professors, is about making good use of random opportunities among the preferred plans.

“While at Werribee, I became very interested in pre-slaughter stress in animals and how it affected product quality,” Professor Warner said.

“I started researching meat and muscle fibres. I found it fascinating. The biochemistry was extremely interesting, so I tracked the papers of researchers in Canada, UK and Ireland as there were only one or two Australian scientists who were doing work in this area.

“Then crunch time came. I needed to do a PhD to answer my scientific questions so I enrolled at the University

Professor Robyn Warner. Photo: Manuel Sotelo Duarte

of Wisconsin in the USA because it was where my husband and I both got accepted for PhD candidature in our respective fields. I sponged up the lectures and loved sharing expertise in protein separation techniques and microscopy.

I also made time to visit the various meat researchers overseas. I remember I thought of them as demi-gods but they all turned out to be quite human which at the time was such a relief.”

Agriculture and Food News December 2014 9

nitrogen and soil

Dr Helen Suter and Phil Vine taking soil from 15N microplot

measuring our nit No doubt you have heard of a carbon footprint. But what do you know about your nitrogen footprint?

Nitrogen fertilisers are essential for food security, but are a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution, yet when we go to the supermarket we have no way of knowing how much nitrogen was used to make the products we buy.

Professor Deli Chen, Dr Helen Suter and their colleagues in the soils group want to change that.

“We want to develop a scientific index, which is called a nitrogen footprint,” Professor Chen says.

This index would let consumers know how efficiently the farmer used nitrogen fertiliser when producing their food.

He gives, as an example, the star rating system that is used on whitegoods and televisions.

10 Agriculture and Food News December 2014

Professor Chen believes that environmentally conscious consumers will respond to nitrogen footprint labelling and best practices in farm management that reduce this footprint will be rewarded with premium prices.

“The reality is that half of the nitrogen applied to the soil is lost to the environment,” he says.

Some of this ‘lost’ nitrogen leaches into rivers, lakes and the ocean and can cause harmful algal blooms, oceanic ‘dead zones’ and other environmental problems, while some is released into the atmosphere as various gases, including nitrous oxide (N2O), which is a major greenhouse gas.

To precisely measure nitrogen losses from soils and intensive agricultural production systems, Professor Chen’s group is using state-of-the-art

equipment such as Quantum Cascade Lasers, which can measure concentrations of N2O, NH3, CH4, CO2 or other gases in the air down to 40 parts per trillion, and repeat this measurement ten times per second. This information is crucial to quantify and then develop strategies to mitigate these losses.

“We are the best equipped group in the world, for studying all of these gases,” Professor Chen says.

Dr Suter is leading a collaboration with fertiliser company Incitec Pivot Limited to develop and test what they call enhanced efficiency fertilisers.

One of the fertilisers they are testing contains an enzyme inhibitor that blocks the chemical reaction that turns ammonium into nitrate.

nitrogen and soil

Mei Bai with the NH3 laser at the Queensland field site

trogen footprint Nitrate is the substrate for a process called denitrification, which releases N2O and N2 into the atmosphere.

Nitrate is also much more likely than ammonium to be leached out of soil and lost in the groundwater.

Dr Suter says the research is challenging and the results don’t always go as planned.

“In some cases we can find positive benefits in soil mineral nitrogen (ammonium or nitrate) with some of these products, and in other cases we don’t seem to pick up those differences.

So that depends on the situation: the climate; how much rainfall we’ve had; how wet the soil is; the properties of the soil, and the agricultural system,” she says.

Key to these differences are the soil microbes that process the nitrogen and the soils group last year welcomed internationally renowned soil molecular ecologist Professor Jizheng (Jim) He, who joined the Faculty through the

Researcher at Melbourne Accelerator Program (R@MAP).

Professor Chen says the ultimate aim of the research focus is to develop “a fertiliser that can reduce losses, improve efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and can lower the nitrogen footprint”.

Professor Chen’s team is conducting a related project, funded by Meat Livestock Australia, to improve the nitrogen efficiency of intensive cattle feedlot systems. In feedlots, 60 to 70 per cent of the nitrogen that is consumed in food is lost as ammonia. This is equivalent to five to six tonnes of urea fertiliser per day in a typical feedlot.

He says by applying brown coal (lignite) to the manure, they can reduce ammonia loss by 70 per cent and double the nitrogen content of the manure. Applying the nitrogen rich manure to sorghum crop then results in a 40 per cent increase in yield.

“That’s what I’d like to see – people having a greater understanding of how important the soil is for food and therefore how important it is to ensure it remains healthy in the future.”

On the eve of International Year of Soils, Dr Suter wants people to think more about how important the health of our soils is.

“Now, people will go to the shop and buy their steak, for example, in a piece of polystyrene and a plastic wrap and there’s a complete disconnect from where that’s come from,” she says.

“So I think that’s what I’d like to see – people having a greater understanding of how important the soil is for food and therefore how important it is to ensure it remains healthy in the future.”

Agriculture and Food News December 2014 11

alumni awards

AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS and PRIZES Dean’s Honours Dean’s Honours are awarded to students, who achieved academic excellence in 2013.

Bachelor of Agriculture

HC Forster Prize

Robinson Family Scholarship

Nicola Morton

Charles Phillips

Ian Roach Family Scholarship

Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria Scholarship

Harrison Christie Abdul Jabbar Saiful Hilmi

Nicola Morton

Stefanie Blake Abdul Jabbar Saiful Hilmi Nicola Morton

Irene Rogers (Lowe) Scholarship

Sir Samuel Wadham Medal

Eloise Culic

Stefanie Blake

James Cuming Prize

Master of Agribusiness

Abdul Jabbar Saiful Hilmi

Tallis Family Agricultural Scholarship

Roshan Parepiah

JM Higgins Exhibition

Master of Agricultural Science

Stefanie Blake

Hugo Lam

John and Jenny Barnett Memorial Prize

Master of Animal Science Miranda Coffey

Carolina Andrea Munoz Gallardo

Master of Food Science

John and Olga Lawless Ziegler Scholarships

Dwi Anggun Septiana Suciptan

Master of Wine Technology and Viticulture Karen Miller

AWARDS, BURSARIES, PRIZES AND SCHOLARSHIPS Alan Blakney Memorial Scholarship Zarmeen Hassan

Arthur Sims Scholarship Samantha Chiew

Brunning Prize Genevieve Robinson

Calluna Prize Abdul Jabbar Saiful Hilmi

Clare Leslie Memorial Prize Anna Fry

Dookie 1963 Prize Eloise Culic

Eileen Mary Harris Undergraduate Scholarship Stefania Chincarini Zarmeen Hassan Sebastian Nixon

Eileen Mary Harris Honours Scholarship Michael Curtis

12 Agriculture and Food News December 2014

Thomas Robinson

Vam Deo Dhar Memorial Scholarship Dai Yao

Weed Society of Victoria Prize Nicole Newbert Genevieve Robinson

Ann Curan Claudia Gebert Jonathan Grant Sandor Guggisberg Abdul Jabbar Saiful Hilmi Elizabeth Jauregui James Koroneos Amity Lagos Lianli Lin Sabina Maramaniqio Samantha Picknell Jemma Stefanou Natalie Sursock Anne Gabrielle Tachado Luke Visser

WH Ferguson Memorial Prize

Loxton Scholarship

Wrixon Exhibition

William Morphett Nicholas Pantelis Thomas Robinson

Eloise Hollins

Nancy Millis Agricultural Students Scholarship

Selected and awarded by outside funders.

Sarah Burr Jack Daniel James Evans Prue Ferguson Stephen Rodger Ariane Zihlmann

Quinton de Soyres Prize Stefanie Blake

Nicola Morton

William Allan Stewart Establishment Bursaries Annika Alexander Jasmine Edwards Nicola Morton Wendy Parish Elly Polonowita Anne Gabrielle Tachado

William Allan Stewart Scholarship Abdul Jabbar Saiful Hilmi Alexandra Lacey Hayley Symonds

EXTERNAL SCHOLARSHIPS

Horizon Scholarship Sarah Robertson

Rising Star Scholarship Thea Hewitt

Rural Finance Scholarships Jarred Schlitz David Swain

alumni awards

Associate Professor Brian Leury with Doug Wilson DDA, presenting the Dookie 1963 Prize to Doctor of Veterinary Medicine graduate Eloise Culic, May 2014

RESEARCH STUDENT AWARDS Alton Gould Edmonds Scholarship Aqsa Tabasum Jiang Chang Bhawana Bhatta Kaudal Saleem Khan

Elizabeth Ann Crespin Scholarships Lynda Hanlon

Henry Gyles Turner Scholarship

Richard WS Nicholas Agricultural Science Scholarships Niloofar Vaghefi Sara Ohadi Saleem Khan Eden Tongson Jiang Chang

Yellow Earth Scholarship Jing-Wen Chiu

Hoi-Fe Mok

New Scholarships

Sir John and Lady Higgins Research Scholarships

Two philanthropic trusts will generously fund scholarships that will benefit students from regional and rural areas, and enrich their university experience.

Maseko Tebo

Leslie H Brunning Research Fund Akansha Sharma

Lindsay and Alice Gamble Research Scholarships Niharika Sharma Prakash Nair Surinder Singh Chauman Rui Lui

Mary Sloane Travelling Scholarship

cost of living, accommodation and relocation to Melbourne. ‘I like the idea of planting seeds in the hope that they might grow into pretty big trees.’

– George Alexander AM.

William Buckland Foundation The William Buckland Foundation will fund 15 residential scholarships for undergraduate students in agriculture, to be taken up at either Trinity or St Hilda’s colleges. The scholarships will provide financial support for students’ accommodation costs and builds on William Buckland’s desire to assist ‘Australia and Australians’ in ‘agricultural pursuits’.

George Alexander Foundation The George Alexander Foundation will fund 15 scholarships for outstanding scholars to study agriculture at the University. The funds may be used towards the

Fan Liu

Agriculture and Food News December 2014 13

student profile

“I lived on campus at Dookie in my final year of studies with about ten other students, and it was just awesome. Many of our classes were held in the woolshed or out amongst the stock on pasture, and there is truly no better way to learn than to be able to see, hear, smell and feel your subject!”

Student profile: Lucy Collins Lucy Collins is from Tarwin Lower, South Gippsland, where her family own a business designing and constructing stock handling facilities, together with a contract fencing operation.

She completed her Bachelor of Science (Agriculture) in 2011 and is now enrolled in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.

“Being raised in a rural farming community and working for my family business has allowed me to encounter a variety of farming and agricultural experiences. I used to worry that I’d be at a disadvantage not being from a large scale generational farming family, but I now know that with the right education, training and support, those of us who carry a genuine interest and enthusiasm in working within agricultural industries can still make valuable contributions as part of the future generation of Australian farming,” Lucy said.

“I chose this course because it interested me, and because the employment opportunities upon graduation are excellent.

14 Agriculture and Food News December 2014

“I lived on campus at Dookie in my final year of studies with about ten other students, and it was just awesome.

We were able to complete research projects on-site and work on the farm to gain practical experience. Many of our classes were held in the woolshed or out amongst the stock on pasture, and there is truly no better way to learn than to be able to see, hear, smell and feel your subject!

“The subjects were practical, well taught and relevant to my career aspirations; my lecturers were energetic, engaging and encouraging.

“I would recommend the Bachelor of Agriculture because of the excellent extracurricular opportunities throughout the course, fantastic resources located at Parkville and Dookie Campuses,

lifelong friendships and valuable learning throughout.

“I honestly believe I wouldn’t have got the marks to get through to vet science had I not enjoyed studying agriculture so much.

The practical skills and understanding of production animal systems I gained by studying ag gave me a good grounding to begin my veterinary studies.

“My goal is to work as a mixed practice veterinarian in a rural or remote community.”

Being at Werribee Veterinary Clinical Centre, I have the feeling of working as part of a team, dedicated to the study and practice of veterinary medicine, using state of the art facilities, and I’m learning under so many well respected veterinary specialists.

events

Reunions The following two reunions are currently being organised.

Information on other events will be sent during 2015.

Dookie students from early 1990s Agriculture, resource management, agribusiness and nursing 7 and 8 March 2015

20-year BAgrSc alumni photographed on the steps of the “Ag Building”, October 2014.

Contact Ashley Carr: dookieag20yrsreunion@gmail.com

1965 BAgrSc October – November 2015 Contact Peter Bailey: pjbail@yahoo. com Reunion enquiries to Jeffrey Topp: jtopp@unimelb.edu.au

BAgrSc students who spent second year at Dookie in 1954, met again at the campus in October 2014, with family and University staff.

Churchill Fellowship The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust provides an opportunity for Australians to travel overseas to conduct research in their chosen field that is not readily available in Australia. Applications are invited for the 2015 Churchill Fellowships and alumni are encouraged to apply.

Dean’s Lectures A program covering both agricultural and veterinary science topics is being developed. Lectures early in 2015 are: February 5: Professor Alan Olmstead, Department of Economics, UC Davis March 12: Associate Professor Chris Whitton, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences Details, registration and information on subsequent lectures will be posted at and will be listed at: http://fvas.unimelb.edu.au/news-and-events

Applications close on 16 February 2015.

Further information: www.churchilltrust. com.au

Agriculture and Food News December 2014 15

Professor Deli Chen

Director – China, and Head, Crop and Soil Section Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences

YOU MUST EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS TO ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS I came to Australia from China as a postgraduate student and philanthropic scholarships and awards allowed my career to flourish. I am eternally grateful for this generosity and in turn, now give to provide others the same opportunities. I am passionate about finding solutions to global challenges affecting our environment and sustainable agricultural production. Through our research and management of soil and water resources today, we can improve our world for the future.

For more information about Believe - the Campaign for the University of Melbourne, please visit campaign.unimelb.edu.au