Researcher – In – Industry Dr Dana Stanley
Dr Dana Stanley of Central Queensland University (CQU) has undertaken her first visit as part of her “Researcher-in-Industry” internship from the Poultry CRC. Dana started on the layer industry side, with a visit to a large commercial layer farm run by D.A. Hall & Co farms in Millmerran, Queensland. D.A. Hall & Co have been providing eggs to Australian consumers since the 1950s.
“My first visit to a large commercial layer farm for project work left me speechless. Standing in a shed with 10,000 birds yet breathing fresh air with full lungs was something I never thought possible,” said Dana. Having prepared a talk on her recent research, Dana found that it became much more of a discussion, peppered with questions from both sides.
Having visited a large scale layer farm, Dana will move onto a chicken meat farm with Golden Cockerel, and then see three other poultry production facilities in June. As Dana concluded, “the value to be gained in interacting with industry is priceless.”
The benefits to researchers participating in the “Researcher-in-Industry” internship include seeing the different approaches taken by farmers on different types and scales of farms, obtaining useful contacts in industry, and becoming aware of current issues facing a particular industry sector. On this last point, Dana commented that, “sitting quietly and listening to discussions on productivity was an educational experience. There is lot to learn about successful running of a large, multiple production system farm. I feel I can now better target my research, knowing better the context in which the results can be used.”
