AAAS SA members head to 2022 Cairns Conference

A cohort of over 15 “South Australians”, whether currently based in SA or have just returned, use to work in SA or born and bred in SA, but now work interstate but their allegiance to SA remains strong, and /or past SA post graduate students recently attended and presented papers and posters at the 2022 Australian Association of Animal Sciences Biennial Conference Cairns, 5-7 July, 2022.

Luis Prada e Silva, Conference Chair, welcomed over 250 attendees, and encouraged the focus on the theme of “Anchoring knowledge, exploring animal science ecosystems”. He said, “It’s imperative that science has an impact and for the knowledge to be anchored via its ratification, sharing, application and review. The program was thoughtfully prepared to entice innovation and blue-sky thinking, and to pull knowledge and expertise together to make our science impactful to all animal industries. We are not only at the cutting edge of animal science, but we are also in a unique position to help shape the future direction of agricultural and ecological services”.

Cairns proved to be a great location for the Conference as its where the rangelands meet the rainforest, and the rainforest meets the sea and is showcased by two UNESCO World Heritage Sites – the Wet Tropics Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.

Prof Wayne Pitchford, Director of the University of Adelaide’s Davies Livestock Research Centre said, “with the last conference delayed and then online due to COVID, it was very special to meet in person again. It was great to have such a strong SA cohort in attendance, catch up with colleagues and see the impact we are having Nationally.”

“Formally writing, presenting and critiquing scientific work is a crucial part of the scientific process leading to adoption by producers. One of the greatest things is to see former students grow to have a major impact. I even met my academic great-grandchild, a student whose supervisor was a student of one of my former students!”

“It’s not just about being closed in a room for a talk-fest, but on Friday 8th we had a field trip to the Atherton Tablelands where we visited a number of beef enterprises and were blown away by the productivity and enterprise diversity with great soils, warm temperatures and high rainfall.”

“The 2024 conference will be in Melbourne and in collaboration with the Asian-Australasian Association of Animal Sciences and so will have a strong focus on livestock production in our region.”

AAAS SA Group Photo

Back Row (Standing): Jena Alexopoulos, Sam Walkom, Simon Quigley, Mariana Caetano, Caitlin Evans, Leesa-Joy Flanagan, Sean Miller, Wayne Pitchford, Judith Pitchford

Middle row (kneeling): Damon Wex, Danila Marini , Matt Bekker, Peter James

Front row (seated): Kate Plush, Bruce Hancock, Hussein Al-Moadhen