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Pan-SAC Seminars
The aim of pan-SAC seminar series is to enhance SAC’s academic culture and improve communications across all divisions.
The seminar series is used to present a wide variety of topics by SAC staff, visitors and students including discussion of other educational or scholarly activity as well as feedback from staff who have attended major conferences.
These seminars take place weekly on Thursdays from 12:40-13:20. They are video recorded and past seminars can be viewed by clicking on the links below.
Predicting macro-parasite risk in a changing climate - Naomi Fox, 03/05/12
The changing abundance and distribution of parasitic helminths has been identified as one of the greatest threats to animal health in the UK under a changing climate.
Fast Food Restaurants and Childhood Obesity - Prof Rodolfo Nayga (UARK), 26/04/12
We analyze the effect of the number of fast-food restaurants at different distances from public schools in Arkansas on school-level obesity rates.
Are Consumers Willing-to-Pay a Price Premium for Environmentally Friendlier Foods? - Dr Faical Akaichi, 05/04/12
The existing literature is sparse on consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for true commodities which possess environmental benefits.
Informing Social Objectives in Fisheries Policy: 'Dependency' and 'Community' in Scotland - Natalie Ross, 29/03/12
Please note there is no video for this seminar.
Incorporating explicit social objectives into fisheries policy demands greater awareness of concepts of fisheries ‘dependency’ and ‘community’ - labels that pervade management documents but remain poorly understood.
Developing agriculture and bio-energy in Cuba - Julian Bell, 15/03/12
Over the last year I have been working on a consultancy project in Cuba for the Ministry of Sugar (MINAS) and a UK investment group (Havana Energy).
From Contemporary Comparisons to Genomic selection - Dr Raphael Mrode, 08/03/12
Huge economic benefits have been achieved as a result of genetic improvement in dairy cattle.
Response from the Hills: Business as Usual or a Turning Point? - Steven Thomson, 01/03/12
An update to the 2008 Retreat from the Hills report examines how beef and sheep production has fared since the decoupling of CAP support in 2005.
Conservation in a cultural landscape - issues and opportunities - Dr Alistair Hamilton, 23/02/12
Conservation in the UK landscape must often sit together with other land use objectives, and there can be obvious tensions between different objectives.
Raising the yield potential of cereal crops – opportunities and constraints - Dr Steve Hoad, 16/02/12
Increasing the yield potential of cereal crops is essential to keep pace with global demands for food and local demands for home-grown produce.
Is it really that wet at Kirkton? - Dr John Holland, 09/02/12
I will describe how both manual and automatic weather data are collected at the Met Office Station at Kirkton.
Extraphosphoric effects of phytase – are they real? - Dr Oluyinka Olukosi, 02/02/12
Phytase is one of the most successful exogenous enzymes because it is the only enzyme that almost always leads to improvement in animal growth, production and phosphorus utilisation in diets marginally deficient in phosphorus.
Increasing student engagement with PDP - Dr Kyrsten Black, 26/01/12
The seminar will introduce a project that was set up to devise a practical approach to integrating PDP (including the plan to map graduate attributes and the use of eportfolios) throughout all four years of the RBM programme using PebblePAD.
Fewer burps in your burgers? - Dr Ann Bruce - Innogen, 19/01/12
How might beef and sheep farmers incorporate breeding technologies in their farming practices to reduce emissions of methane?
Health, Food and Design Thinking - Stephen Brogan, 12/01/12
Contemporary systems thinking describes agriculture as a 'complex adaptive system', a type of disturbed ecosystem.
Can genetic improvement deliver multiple public-private good outcomes? - Eileen Wall, 15/12/11
Contemporary livestock production systems have a dual role combining food production and public good objectives.
Environmental implications of changing sheep breed structure on hill farms - Eileen McCloskey, 01/12/11
The relationship between grazing livestock and heather moorlands has been an area of great importance for many years.
Characteristics of successful aquaculture development with an emphasis on salmon - Prof Trond Bjorndal, 24/11/11
During the last 30 years or so, aquaculture has been the world's fastest food production technology.
More than just a long tube - the amazingly adaptable gut - Prof Malcolm Mitchell, 17/11/11
Quite correctly the gut is regarded as an internal organ.
Prediction of body and carcass composition of farm animals by CT - Dr Lutz Bunger, 11/11/11
X-ray computed tomography (CT) is a non-invasive imaging technique and has a wide range of applications from its use in diagnostics to in vivo and post mortem measurements of body and carcass composition in various mammal species (“from mouse to cow”).
Public engagement with low-carbon lifestyles and energy - Dr Lorraine Whitmarsh, 03/11/11
To what extent is the public concerned about climate change and energy security? What influences support for climate/energy policies and technologies? And are these the same predictors of individual behaviour change?
The role of field advisors as agents of knowledge exchange - Dr Amy Proctor, 13/10/11
Field advisors perform a key role in transacting decision-making and enacting farmers within the agri-food system.
Farm scale modelling of perennial energy crop supply in the UK - Peter Alexander, PhD student, 06/10/11
The area of perennial energy crops in the UK is envisaged to expand significantly, forming part of an increase in using biomass as a source of renewable energy.