The Dairy Centre’s world-class research focuses on three main areas of study. Its programs are designed to support the dairy industry in BC and beyond.

• Animal Welfare and Behaviour
• Animal Reproduction
• Nutrient Recovery

 
Animal Welfare and Behaviour
Led by UBC's Dan Weary, Marina (Nina) von Keyserlingk, and AAFC's Anne Marie de Passille, Jeff Rushen and Doug Veira, the Animal Welfare and Behaviour research team explores the ethical treatment of food animals, calf welfare, cow comfort and management, feeding behaviour, lameness and the general management of beef cattle.

Activities in this area include:
•    Developing on-farm methods of detecting lameness
•    Using biomechanical techniques to objectively analyze cow gait
•    Determining the relationship between environmental factors, such as flooring surface, and lameness
•    Improving feed bunk design and management
•    Improving cow comfort: free stall design and management
•    Using feeding behaviour as an early predictor of disease
•    Developing group housing strategies
•    Improving methods of feeding milk to calves
•    Minimizing stress during weaning
•    Optimizing age of separation from the dam
•    Minimizing pain and distress at dehorning  
 
Animal Reproduction
Led by Ronaldo Cerri and Raja Rajamahendran, the Dairy Centre’s Animal Reproduction researchers investigate how to:

•    Develop markers to predict fertility of bulls in the field
•    Develop management technologies to improve pregnancy rates in cattle
•    Develop assisted reproductive technologies for farm animals
•    Improve productivity and produce value-added products in milk through development of transgenic animals
•    Clone desired farm animal genetics with the use of stem cell technology and nuclear transfer
 
Energy and Nutrient Recovery 
Led by Victor Lo and Don Mavinic, Department of Civil Enginering

• Develop technology to recover phosphorous from animal manure
• Develop technology to recover energy from animal manure