Skip to main content

Funded PhD Studentship: Feeding strategies to enhance the well-being of dairy calves during the weaning transition.

Research Office

Location:  Newport, Shropshire TF10 8NB
Salary:  As per advert
Post Type:  Full Time
Contract Type: Fixed Term - 36 Months - Up to 36 months
Closing Date:  23.59 hours GMT on Friday 28 February 2025
Reference:  RD-PHD-01-EB-MH-25

Funded PhD Studentship: Feeding strategies to enhance the well-being of dairy calves during the weaning transition.

Director of Studies: Dr Emma Bleach, Agriculture and Environment Department, Harper Adams University, Edgmond, Shropshire.

Second Supervisors: Dr James McCaughern, Dr Gemma Charlton, Dr Joe Roberts.

Start Date: October 2025

The studentship covers the current Home Student (UK, Ireland, Isle of Man & Channel Isles) tuition fees plus a yearly stipend (for 2024/5 this was £19,237 per year) with an expected small increase each academic year (2025/6 to be confirmed). International applicants would need to be able to fund the difference between Home and Overseas fees (£11,382 for the 2025/26 academic year), with a proportion being paid in full before Visa documentation can be issued.

Project.

Dairy calves are typically weaned from milk feeds on to solid, concentrate feeds at just 6 to 12 weeks of age. In this relatively short timeframe, their digestive system must develop from one designed to utilise just milk, to one that can effectively utilise solid feeds, to support continued growth and development after weaning. Milk feeding of dairy-bred calves has received much research interest recently, which has generally led to increased volumes of milk being fed to calves on farms. This enhances their welfare while milk is offered but poses a challenge during the transition to solid feeds at weaning. 

Published research indicates that dairy farmers make the decision to wean their calves based on a target age, weight, or solid feed intake. The latter of these gives some indication of rumen development in the calf, with intakes of approaching 2 kg per day considered necessary for a smooth weaning transition. However, it is challenging to measure calf concentrate intakes on farm, especially as there is a move from individual to group housing of calves, as weaning approaches. In addition, our research at Harper Adams University Dairy Calf Rearing Unit shows that there is considerable variation in solid feed intakes and that they may be as low as 200 g/d at 8 weeks of age, despite a step-down milk feeding schedule.

The aim of this PhD project is to identify indicators of ‘readiness to wean’ in dairy-bred calves by examining growth, behavioural patterns and metabolomic indicators associated with digestive system development. In seeks to facilitate a smooth weaning transition by investigating the relationship between pre-weaning solid feed intakes and these indicators. Additionally, the longer-term effects of early-life solid feed intakes on heifer growth and development will be evaluated.

Email details to a friend

Harper Adams University is one of the premier UK Higher Education institutions focused on the land-based and food supply chain sector. With around 2,800 undergraduate students, plus those completing postgraduate, research and CPD programmes, Harper Adams University is the UK's largest single provider of higher education for these subjects.  Programmes fall into eleven broad subject areas – but none operate in isolation. Community and collaboration are key at Harper Adams, meaning everyone, including staff, students and industry partners, benefits from a close network of knowledge and opportunity exchange. Situated in Shropshire, the campus and the surrounding area provide an excellent working and living environment for staff and students alike.

Harper Adams is consistently positioned highly in a range of national ratings, performance measures and league tables. The University has been the highest performing modern university in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide for the last four years, climbing to 17th place in the overall league table. In the 2020 guide Harper Adams was named Modern University of the Year and runner-up University of the Year. In the 2019 Whatuni? Student Choice Awards, based on student reviews, Harper Adams won the Student Support category for the fifth time – the only university to have taken the title since the awards began - and won the category for best job prospects for a fourth year running. In the 2020 QS World Rankings for Agriculture and Forestry published in March 2020, Harper Adams was ranked first in the UK for academic reputation and second in the world for its reputation with employers.


Harper Adams University is internationally recognised for the quality of its research, as evidenced by the Research Excellence Framework 2022. In order to maintain and uphold the high standards of our research, we continue to undertake initiatives to ensure that integrity, ethics and excellence are at the core of our research activities and fully embedded in our research culture.
 


View All Vacancies

Login

Login

Forgotten Details

Register