From May 6th to August 4th, 2019, University of New England PhD candidate Matt Hilliar took 3 months off to complete an industry based internship with Ridley AgriProducts through the APR intern program. The internship involved Matt developing his skills as an animal nutritionist whilst working on a project within Ridley.
Matt’s expertise in amino acid nutrition was drawn upon to develop a database for Ridley to use in feed formulations across multiple species. Matt’s project was a joint effort with Dr. Emma Bradbury of Ridley and Dr. Natalie Morgan of the University of New England.
“It was great to apply my skills and see ‘real world’ applications of the knowledge I’ve gained during the completion of my PhD.”
The project developed regression equations for the amino acid content of Australian feedstuffs. The key findings of the project resulted in refined diet formulation accuracy and further highlighted the need to use Australian specific data. The project also supported the future application of reduced-protein diets, Matt’s PhD topic.
“I’m proud of the results we have presented Ridley and look forward to seeing the outcomes of the project in industry.”
“I’m very grateful for the support Ridley has given me and I have gained some much needed industry experience. It was great to be involved in the ‘day to day’ and see what research is truly needed to help industry improve its efficiency.”
As a result of the internship, Matt has accepted a role with Turosi, a customer of Ridley, beginning in October after he submits his PhD thesis.
If you would like more information on APR.intern internships please visit https://aprintern.org.au
