PhD candidate - Heat stress in dairy cows

Agroscope is looking for a:

PhD candidate - Heat stress in dairy cows

100% / 1725 Posieux

good food, healthy environment
Global climate change is leading to more frequent heat waves, even in moderate climate zones such as Switzerland. Grazing dairy cows are particularly susceptible to heat stress because they are exposed to direct sunlight. A project is to be set up to investigate how the availability of shade on pasture influences heat stress in dairy cows.

Agroscope is the Swiss Confederation’s centre of excellence for research in the agriculture and food sector. Its researchers carry out their activities at various sites in Switzerland. Headquartered in Bern-Liebefeld (from 2025: Posieux, Canton of Fribourg), Agroscope is affiliated with the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER.

The research group ’Ruminant Nutrition and Emissions’ has a presence at the Posieux and Tänikon sites and is concerned with ruminant nutrition and husbandry in roughage-based feeding systems with the aims of reducing nutrition-related production diseases, cutting emissions from animal husbandry, improving efficiency and maintaining high product quality.

The study will be carried out as an external dissertation of the Vetsuisse Faculty Bern and will be supervised by Prof. Olga Wellnitz.