Student wins BSAS Academia Association Prize

21 May 2018

Charlotte Bolton, 23, from Honiton, Devon, was among five other scientists who were recongnised for their outstanding research at the Brisitish Society of Animal Science's annual congress. She was presented with the Academia Association prize for her research which investigated the effects of feeding Holstein-Fresian claves flavoured drinking water.

In her own words she talks about the project.

"I was awarded the BSAS Academia Association award at graduation in September 2017 for the highest animal science based dissertation. This gave me the opportunity to present the findings from my HRP at the BSAS Annual conference in Dublin in 9-11 April 2018 at both the student day on the Monday and in the calf rearing sessions on the Wednesday. The whole experience of being able to present my findings at a conference was incredible. All the hard work that went into my dissertation has really paid off, and there is no better feeling than being able to share positive findings from the novel use of a commonly used feed ingredient to industry specialists.

"A bit about my project: I investigated the effects of molasses supplementation in dairy heifer drinking water to try and increase pre-weaning performance. Using 27 Holstein-Friesian heifers from one-week of age, I found a significant difference between daily liveweight gains of calves on the 10% inclusion compared to the control treatment. Calves also appeared to start drinking water and eating concentrate earlier, promoting rumen development. These findings also showed that calves on the 10% molasses treatment at an average of 0.7kg DLWG over the duration of the 6-week trial were the only group of calves to reach the recommended 0.7-1.0kg/day DLWG advocated by AHDB Dairy for heifers to reach the target age at first calving of between 22-24 months."

"I would like to thank Emma Bleach for seeing the potential in my project, and for her support throughout my dissertation and in preparation for the conference. I would also like to thank former Harper Students Anne Stones and her daughter Rebecca Erskine for allowing me use the calf rearing facilities on their farm and for all their support throughout and beyond my trial."