Queen's-AFBI Alliance
Find out more about Kayley Barnes' research
Kayley Barnes, PhD student
PhD Title: Seaweeds: A natural approach to improve ruminant productivity, quality of animal products and reduce environmental emissions.
Supervisors: Professor Sharon Huws and Dr Katerina Theodoridou (Queen’s); Dr Tianhai Yan (AFBI)
Can you describe your research project?
My research focus is on the potential of seaweed as a feed ingredient to promote more sustainable and circular agriculture. As a research team we are investigating seaweed’s potential to reduce methane emissions from ruminants, enhance animal health and production while also improving human food quality.
I’m approaching the end of the first year of my PhD where I have spent 80% of my time on the exploratory, lab-based research phase of the project. At the lab stage, I carried out a series of in-vitro rumen fermentation experiments where combinations of rumen fluid, grass silage and seaweed are incubated over 48hr timeframes. The end products of fermentation are monitored to measure things like methane, ammonia and volatile fatty acids. Based on these initial lab results, I am very hopeful that seaweed can have a central role in helping farming move towards Net Zero.
Now, we are moving on to the farm-based trials at AFBI Hillsborough, feeding dry, seaweed powder (mixed in with their regular diet) to beef and dairy cattle. I’m so excited to be embarking on these farm trials. To get to work with live animals is a real privilege at this stage of my career and an opportunity a lot of PhD researchers don’t get.
There will be a couple of different components to the trials – we are testing the seaweed on 72 beef cattle and 12 dairy cattle, using three different seaweed types at differing inclusion levels against control (no seaweed) groups. We will monitor levels of methane but also any differences in animal performance and product quality, eg. iodine and mineral content in the milk. I hope we can prove that even small amounts of seaweed – less than 8% dry matter inclusion - can elicit a significant reduction in methane gas production.
Where does your research sit within the Queen’s-AFBI Alliance?
To date, my research has been mostly carried out in the labs at IGFS within the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) at Queen’s, but now that we’re moving to the farm stage, I’ll be based at AFBI a lot more. But the research has always straddled both institutions, along with the Queen’s Marine Lab in Portaferry. Colleagues at AFBI have been so helpful with the nutritional end of the seaweed research – eg. advising on palatability, or practical issues of how best to mix the dried seaweed powder into the regular feed.
Similarly, the researchers at the Marine Lab have been critical – not only in species identification but advising on its use, nutritional composition, processing, etc. It’s been great researching between all three of these hubs, learning from so many different experts from such a wide range of disciplines.
What was your pathway to a PhD?
I did a primary degree in Animal Science at the University of Newcastle and after that I worked in industry for three years, with 18 months of that time being a Technical Manager for a ruminant feed additives business, AB Vista, in Peterborough. It was 100% the right decision for me to come back into academia – when you’ve been away from university life for a few years, it’s a very conscious choice – but I’m open-minded about what the future holds.
I’m from a farming background and I am passionate about sustainable, livestock farming so whether I end up doing a Post-Doc, or going back into industry, the most important thing for me will be that it’s part of the push for a more sustainable agriculture sector.
What’s your favourite thing so far about doing a PhD?
As mentioned, it’s a great privilege to have an animal trial as part of your project – not that many people get that chance. I also love the fact that I’m working between Queen’s and AFBI and the breadth of research that facilitates. Even when I’m focussing on lab work at Queen’s, I’ve been working within a few different labs in the SBS, as well as the Marine Lab.
I feel part of a very dynamic community of researchers who are passionate about their subjects and supportive of each other and their students. There is also lots of support from Post-Docs and really just everyone in all the lab groups, from the professors to the technicians – everyone is happy to share knowledge and expertise.
Although this is only my first year of a doctorate, I’ve had the opportunity to get involved in outreach activities like the NI Science Festival and the Balmoral Show. I’ve even organised a BBC television crew coming to make a documentary on this research project!
Attending an international conference in my first year was also particularly notable – I had the opportunity to represent the IGFS and AFBI groups at the 8th GGAA conference in Florida in June 2022, expanding my network and learning from the wider research community in the methane-mitigation sphere. Such an amazing experience!