91Pro

Graduate secures industry role boosting animal welfare thanks to scholarship

Posted 14 October

An alumna who secured her first industry role thanks to a Harper Adams placement is set to discuss her new career at the University’s Scholarship Fair later this month.

 Veterinary bioscience graduate Chloe Rodriguez is now an animal welfare specialist at agricultural solutions specialists Galebreaker, having initially secured a scholarship placement with the company.

Chloe said: “I’m thrilled to return to Galebreaker and thankful for the opportunities I had through the scholarship placement.

“The experience really cemented my passion for enhancing animal health and I hope to make a long-term contribution to the industry in my new role.”

Galebreaker has run a Scholarship placement with Harper Adams for three years – demonstrating its commitment to encouraging new entrants into the livestock sector.

The Scholarship is one of many made available to Harper Adams students through the work of the University’s Development Trust.

During her time on placement, Chloe spoke about how the role was helping her apply her studies and help boost animal welfare – work which she will now continue in her graduate career.

She said: “Galebreaker exists to enable agricultural businesses to perform at their best in any weather or climate.

“I have undertaken a role carrying out farm case studies, looking at the benefits of our products in terms of animal health and welfare and the overall value of our product to the farmer.

“My main areas of focus are calf housing and ventilation, heat stress in both housed dairy and beef cattle, and pig production assessing ventilation and air quality. This placement stood out to me straight away as I knew I wanted to work with livestock, but I didn’t want to just be on a farm.”

With a little help from Chloe, the company will be promoting their next scholarship at this year’s 91Pro Scholarship Fair on October 21.

Open to second year BSc and first year FdSc students studying livestock-related degrees, the scholarship offers a year-long role as a ventilation and animal welfare analyst.

Galebreaker’s technical director, Andrew Gardener, believes the student placement programme has proven to be an excellent pathway for developing young talent.

He added: “We are excited to continue supporting the next generation of industry leaders through our scholarship initiative.

“During her previous time with us, Chloe developed excellent consultancy skills and as she rejoins the business will work closely with our farm customers.

“One of her main priorities will be to demonstrate how improvements to farm building environments can result in positive gains to animal performance, productivity, health and welfare. Much of this will be shown through the ongoing research and development Galebreaker is investing in.”

And Chloe added: "I’m really looking forward to engaging with farmers, vets and on-farm consultants as part of my role- to help ensure the implications of poor housing environments are fully understood.”