With a variable climate, drought has been a constant and inevitable feature of the Australia landscape. The current drought began in NSW in mid - 2017 and it is equivalent to a major drought event on the long-term historical record (100 years) according to NSW Department of Primary Industry. Consequently, this led to reduction of grain harvest and increase of grain price by more than 50% for chicken-meat producers in Australia. Due to the shortage of wheat grains and its premium price in 2018, sorghum has been used in broiler diets with high inclusion rates (>50%). Surprisingly, growth performance was depressed when drought-stressed sorghum was offered in broiler chickens. The reduction of growth did not justify the price advantages in sorghum. The present project will include four feeding studies to evaluate nutrient utilisation and growth performance in broiler chickens offered sorghum grains planted under different growing conditions (drought versus irrigated).
Sydney Institute of Agriculture - Camden campus
Masters/PHD
This project has two unique features. Firstly, the growing conditions and variety of sorghums used in feeding studies, will be traceable. Sorghums will be planted at the Uni. Qld agricultural facility (Gatton) under both drought and irrigated conditions. Secondly, all sorghums (approx. 50-60) will be analysed for kafirin and protein content. APAF is the only Australian facility that has the capability for quantifying kafirin in conjunction with the total protein content of sorghums.
The primary objective of this project is to identify and quantitate the anti-nutritive factors in drought-stressed sorghum and how to recover the reduction on broiler performance when these sorghums are used in diets. The specific objectives are,
Industry scholarship opportunity is possible based on the quality of the application.
HDR Inherent Requirements
In addition to the academic requirements set out in the Science Postgraduate Handbook, you may be required to satisfy a number of inherent requirements to complete this degree. Example of inherent requirement may include:
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 2825