A team of researchers from Camden, NSW, have achieved recognition for their work on the health and production of cows around calving.
The team includes Prof Jose Santos, from the University of Florida, young Australian researchers Dr Helen Golder and Dr Rachael Rodney and Australian researcher Prof Ian Lean.
They were was recently recognised with the prestigious American Feed Industry Association Award.
Four of their recent papers were in the top 100 published in the past three years for the Journal of Dairy Science.
The journal is one of the most highly regarded publications for animal production and veterinary science in the world.
Some 36,000 papers were published by the journal in the past three years.
"While this is good news for the joint efforts (of the researchers), the best news was for cows," Professor Lean said.
"The papers presented findings showing that providing better pre-calving diets for 21 days markedly reduced disease, increased milk solids production and improved fertility.
"These findings continue our progress to eliminating metabolic disease in calving cows."
The work was supported by commercial partners and by Scibus and Dairy Australia.
Further studies are in progress, particularly with a joint effort with the University of Wisconsin, and on the completion of a study in Australia involving more than 1000 cows in Victoria and NSW.
Many of the findings from these studies will be incorporated into a second edition of the Transition Cow Management Review, produced by Dairy Australia, that is anticipated before the end of the year.
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