Measuring Methane

Dr Maeve Williams, a post-doctoral researcher with Teagasc, joins the pod to talk about her research into cow genetics and identifying traits which can help breed more productive, healthier cows. Some might even call it the search for the Irish supercow.

Prof Paul Cotter, Head of Food Biosciences at Teagasc, joins host Jeremy Probert to talk about his work – including fermented dairy products and their health benefits, mapping the microbiome of milk to understand how better to use it for gut health.

Jeremy Probert is joined by VistaMilk PhD researcher Renata Kostovska to talk about swards – and how including different plants, which require less fertiliser, alongside traditional rye grass in pasture can benefit the quantity and quality of milk cows produce. 

Host Jeremy Probert talks to Keeley McGarr-O’Brien, a Walsh Scholar at Teagasc, about her VistaMilk-funded work to develop a better understanding of dairy sector sustainability standards and how they might be improved.

Teagasc Research Officer Dr Ben Lahart joins host Jeremy Probert to talk about his  recently-published research, which suggests that the amount of methane emitted by Irish cows is significantly less than previously believed.

VistaMilk PhD researcher Rose Edwin joins host Jeremy Probert to discuss her work profiling Irish soil and its implications for soil fertility, plant growth, environmental sustainability, and human health. Rose's goal is to map the microbiome of soil but with trillions of microbes in the soil, piecing them together is like trying to solve the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle.

Nadeem Rather, a PhD researcher at Tyndall Institute in Cork, joins the pod to talk about his work developing of a completely new material that will allow the transmission of data without any electronics or batteries – and its implications for monitoring the health of cows in Ireland’s dairy farming system.

Dr Elodie Ruelle, Research Officer with Vistamilk, joins podcast host Jeremy Probert to talk about grass growth, grass modelling, and getting to the grassroots of the sustainability issue.

Host Jeremy Probert is joined by Dr Lee Coffey, Jennifer Drohan, and Dr Daniel Martins to talk about how the development of bionanomachines which use living bacteria to deliver molecular communications could benefit the health of animals and, potentially, humans.

Host Jeremy Probert is joined by Alan O’Riordan and Han Shao to talk about nitrates sensors.