Dairy Professor begins new role

June 14, 2012

Dairy Professor begins new role

Linking science with farmers is the goal of Massey’s new Professor of Dairy Production Systems, Danny Donaghy.

Professor Donaghy is based at the Manawatu campus, in the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences. The position is co-funded by DairyNZ.

His role is to work closely with the dairy industry to help achieve its goals of improved profitability, sustainability and competitiveness.

He says industry engagement is one of the key things he will focus on. “We can’t just throw some scientific papers at a farmer and get them to change farm practice,” he says. “What we need is to show that our science is relevant and applicable. So a dialogue is really important, and that will be one of my major focuses at Massey.”

Applying research to farm practice was one of Professor Donaghy’s strengths in Tasmania, and he says he is keen to find out what issues dairy farmers in New Zealand are facing and commit the University’s agricultural research capabilities to solving them.

Professor Donaghy has a proven track record of connecting various groups in the dairy industry. Prior to taking up the role at Massey, he was dairy centre leader with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture in Australia, with responsibility for leading and managing Tasmania’s dairy research, development and extension. He has led and been involved in a large number of applied research, training and extension projects and activities, with significant on-ground impact in the dairy industry at both the national and international level.

Professor Donaghy graduated from Melbourne’s LaTrobe University in 1993, and undertook a PhD in pasture agronomy and management through the University of New England (Armidale, New South Wales). Upon completion of the PhD he began a post-doctoral fellowship with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture in 1998. Both his PhD and subsequent post-doctoral fellowship were funded by the Australian dairy industry.

His research has primarily concentrated on agronomy and physiology of pasture plants (grasses, legumes and forage crops), with a particular focus on grazing and harvest management and how to manage forages within diverse farming systems and with increasing climatic variability. In recent years, his focus has broadened into an involvement with projects investigating ruminant nutrition, wildlife control, plant nutrition and water relations, greenhouse gas accounting, and animal and plant genetics. Professor Donaghy has also been a director and member of a number of Tasmanian and Australian dairy industry boards.

ENDS

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