THE SELF-GUIDED COW; DAIRY COW’S ISOLATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR AND USE OF A MATERNITY PEN
Applications are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Animal Science programme. The position is available from 1 February 2015 or later.
Title:
The self-guided cow; dairy cow’s isolation seeking behaviour and use of a maternity pen
Research area and project description:
The idea is to use the dairy cow’s natural isolation seeking behaviour to ensure that she enters an individual maternity pen prior to calving. This knowledge will be used to develop new housing, where the cow is able to withdraw from the herd during the early stage of calving, in order to calve alone in an undisturbed and clean maternity pen. New Danish law states that calving must take place in an individual maternity pen. It is however, difficult for the stockman to predict the time of calving and many cows are either moved too late, or calve in the pen with other cows, which may result in poor animal welfare due to disturbance and prolonged calving.
The aim of the project is to investigate the pre-requisites for the cow’s isolation seeking into a maternity pen prior to calving and her learning to operate a gate to the maternity pen. Furthermore, the project will investigate the effect of self-operated calving pens on behaviour around the time of calving. One experimental study will be carried out at the cattle research facilities at AU, Foulum, while a second experimental study will be carried out on a commercial dairy farm.
The PhD project is conducted as an integrated part of a research and development project aiming to develop a new calving concept to improve animal welfare. The research area for the PhD project is Ethology.
Qualifications and specific competences:
Applicants must have a relevant Master Degree in Veterinary Science or in Animal Science.
Place of Employment and Place of Work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Research Center Foulum, Blichers Alle 20, 8830 Tjele Denmark.
Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information are invited to contact:
Senior researcher Margit Bak Jensen, Department of Animal Science, Telephone: +45 8715 7941, e-mail:Margitbak.jensen@agrsci.dk
Application procedures:
Before you apply:
Information and attachments:
Please be aware that you must have all relevant appendices, attachments, addresses for referees, etc. ready when you apply, as the entire application must be uploaded to the system in one go.
Documentation of language skills:
If English is a secondary language it is required that your English qualifications are documented. The English language requirement at Graduates School of Science and Technology is comparable to an “English B level” in the Danish upper secondary school (“gymnasium”).
English language qualifications comparable to an “English B level” is documented by one of the following tests:
- TOEFL test, minimum score: 560 (paper-based test) or 83 (internet-based test)
- IELTS (academic) test, minimum average score: 6.5 points
- Cambridge ESOL Examinations:
When to take the test and how to upload the documentation:
The test result must not be more than two years old at the time of application.
The English language test should be taken before applying for admission and uploaded under “language skills documentation” in the online application form.
It is possible to apply for admission before you have taken the test. In this case documentation stating that you have signed up for a test (please state expected submission date) must be uploaded. If the test result is not part of the original application the test result is to be sent to sphd@psys.au.dk no later than one month after the application deadline.
The following applicants are exempted from documenting their English qualifications/taking a test:
- Applicants with citizenship from the following countries Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, or one of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway or Sweden).
- Applicants with a Bachelor’s or Master’s programme completed in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, or United States.
- Applicants able to document that English was the language of instruction during their Bachelor’s and/or Master’s programme. This must be documented by uploading an official document from the institution stating this under “language skills documentation”.
The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.
How to apply:
1) Find the application form:
Choose November 2014 Call with deadline 1 November 2014 at 11.59 PM MET.
You will be directed to the call, and must choose the programme 'Animal Science'
2) Fill in the following information:
- Personal information
- Academic background
- Admission
- Financing (if any)
- Study: In the dropdown menu you must choose the project: "The self-guided cow; dairy cow’s isolation seeking behaviour and use of a maternity pen"
- Source (how you found out about the call)
3) Application attachments:
Please be aware that you cannot submit the application if one or several of these documents have not been uploaded.
As a minimum you must upload the following application material (pdf-files only, max. 20 MB, no zip):
- Reference letter (as a minimum 1 must be uploaded)
- Curriculum vitae
- Motivation (max. 1 page)
- One merged file with scanned copies of diploma(s) and transcript(s) of records for all university degrees. Please include the original documents as well as a certified English translation, if the original is not in Scandinavian or English. Please enter your unweighted grade average calculated according to the national grading scale for BSc and MSc separately.
- Project description (½-4 pages). For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. When - as here - you apply for a specific project, please simply copy the project description above, and upload it as a PDF in the application. If you wish to, you can indicate an URL where further information can be found. Please note that we reserve the right to remove scientific papers, large reports, theses and the like.
- Documentation of language skills if required.
Please note:
The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.