The ADC Young Dairy Science Award, sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, provides emerging scientists an environment to present, discuss and connect with leading dairy farmers and industry from around the country.
From a field of five, Beth Scott — a PhD candidate at La Trobe University — was awarded the winner at the ADC gala dinner in Hobart on February 16, after finalists had pitched their research findings during the day to more than 600 delegates at the conference.
Beth presented a piece of work titled Inbreeding remains a challenge for dairy populations, exploring the impact of genetic selection on inbreeding with previous projects focused on the genetic contribution towards stillbirths in the Jersey breed.
Beth grew up on a dairy farm in South Gippsland in Victoria, which perhaps sparked her lifelong interest in genetics — both in the on-farm and in the scientific arena.
She completed a Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience in 2014 and a Master of Animal Science in animal breeding and genetics at the world-leading Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Beth recently joined the team at Australian Fresh Milk Holdings as a business analyst, based in Orange.
ADC Young Dairy Scientist Award coordinator Richard Rawnsley said the award had become a notable high-level tertiary competition for emerging researchers, offering an opportunity to showcase their research at a broader industry level and to the ultimate end-users — dairy farmers.
“The award is designed to nurture scientific excellence and the young scientists must convince fellow dairy farmers and scientists that their research is soundly based and has exciting implications for the future of the dairy industry,” Richard said.
“Each young scientist must prepare a written article, present to conference and prepare an exhibit for display at conference.
“The scientist with the highest combined scores is awarded a $3000 travel bursary to further their field of study.
“The travel bursary is a significant prize offering the young scientist the opportunity to attend leading forums and workshops around the globe with considerable advancements for their learning and knowledge acquisition.
“Funding to extend their field of study is particularly important for these emerging scientists and the bursary has had a definitive impact on the careers of previous winners of the award.”
The other finalists were:
- Laura Field, University of Melbourne;
- Dr Chinthaka Jayasinghe, Agriculture Victoria Research;
- Sarah Legge, University of Sydney; and
- Sineka Munidasa, University of Melbourne.
