Research

---

An expedition needs a good team and we think we've brought together a unique and exciting research team to help us get there. Research key objectives:

Explore the development of an enhanced UK multi-purpose sheep breed designed for climate resilience, lower GHG emissions, and optimum efficiency in agroforestry systems.

Explore the potential of an agroforestry grazing system to enhance the nutritional value of milk and meat.

Explore the circularity of nutrients within the agroforestry system and quantify the early-stage changes in carbon pools and biodiversity.

Dr Whistance is the senior livestock researcher at the Organic Research Centre. She has a background in farming and agroforestry research and projects in the UK and Europe. Key focus areas include animal behaviour and welfare, human-animal-relationships, and silvopastoral systems (she was a contributing author for silvopasture in The Agroforestry Handbook: Agroforestry for the UK published by The Soil Association (2019)). Research includes investigating nutritional and medicinal opportunities of tree fodder as well as shade and shelter, and body maintenance benefits for production animals.

Dr Davis is the MSc agricultural programme director and lecturer of ruminant nutrition and pasture management at Newcastle University, an internationally recognised centre of excellence in integrative animal science. She has a keen interest in agroecological farming systems. Her research focuses on pasture-based ruminant agricultural production systems, examining how management practices (for example, grazing strategy) impacts milk nutritional quality, animal health, welfare and the environment. Research projects include understanding the impacts, benefits and trade-offs of mob grazing and comparing grazing management systems (mob and rotational) and investigating their impact on methane emissions, sward quality and animal efficiency.

Georgios is professor of animal and veterinary sciences and livestock breeding at SRUC, a leader in research underpinning the development of sustainable, economically viable, and environmentally and socially acceptable systems of livestock production. He has more than 30 years’ experience in computational biology, animal breeding and genomics and previous research includes the enhancement of animal health, resilience, adaptability, welfare, productivity and survival, and the development of optimal breeding strategies and programmes. He has more than 200 scientific publications with an overall h-index of 40.

Dr Simonson is head of research and principle agroforestry researcher at the Organic Research Centre. He has a career spanning 30 years in the fields of biodiversity assessments and conservation, as well as climate change adaptation, in both forest and agricultural environments in the UK and overseas. The Organic Research Centre has a long-established programme of agroforestry research and how benefits translate into public goods.

Dr Haefele is a systems agronomist for sustainable soils and crops at Rothamsted Research. He brings expertise in carbon sequestration in soils, soil health characterization, soil chemistry, and pasture quality analysis. Rothamsted Research is the largest agricultural research centre in the UK and the longest running agricultural research station in the world.