Four key new staff have boosted the animal science capability at Massey University.

Dr Nicola Schreurs has joined the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, lecturing in ruminant nutrition and in particular rumen function and dietary requirements of pastoral animals used for production.

Dr Schreurs has a BApplSc Hons and a PhD (Animal Science) both completed at Massey. Her research interests include using animal nutrition to add value to meat and milk products to meet consumer demands and to take advantage of markets, dietary aspects of ruminant nutrition to improve animal performance and nutritional and quality characteristics of meat and milk and the way they are controlled by animal metabolism and diet.

Dr Pete Hutton will lecture in dairy production based at the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences. Dr Hutton has a BSc Hons and a PhD (Rumen Microbiology), both completed at the University of Western Australia. Dr Hutton's research interests include economics and production implications of feeding of supplements on New Zealand farms, energy balance in lactating cows and feeding high-sugar grasses for increasing energy efficiency and improving rumen metabolism and milk production in dairy cows.

Dr Hutton is a former dairy farmer from Nowra, New South Wales, who ran the family farm for 14 years before leaving to travel and pursue his tertiary education. He says he went down the animal science track as a career because of the smart people and good work environment. He considers his new role at Massey a "perfect fit".

"I'm looking forward to doing dairy production research in New Zealand as New Zealand is the best place in the world for pasture-based dairy production."

Dr Sarah Pain also joins the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences, lecturing in animal metabolism and animal-plant interactions.

Dr Pain studied biotechnology and molecular biology before graduating with a B.Biotech and a BAg Hons in animal science and completing a PhD at the University of Adelaide. Her research interests include nutrition-physiology interactions, diet selection and palatability of fodder for dairy cows and horses, namely investigating the physical and chemical factors that influence the short-term preference of feedstuffs and identifying keys drivers of diet selection.

Dr Rebecca Hickson will join the University after sabbatical leave, lecturing in animal breeding and genetics from the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences. She has a BBS majoring in finance, a BSc majoring in mathematics and a BSc (Hons) in animal science from Massey, as well as completing her PhD (Animal Science) at the university.

Dr Hickson is interested in energy efficiency and sees it as an increasingly important area for all animal industries, predicting a role for genetic improvement in achieving more efficient animals. She is also keen to increase the number of beef bulls used to sire beef calves from the dairy industry, and would like to see greater emphasis on reducing gestation length and calving difficulty of these calves.

Originally from a Gisborne sheep and beef farm, Dr Hickson is currently on sabbatical at Iowa State University working on genomic selection projects with ex-Massey Professor Dorian Garrick.