President's Message

Welcome to the second ASAP Newsletter from the 29th Federal Council, which is being hosted by the Southern NSW Branch. I can assure you there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes regarding lifting the profile of ASAP. These changes should become very apparent in the near future.

Of immediate interest to members will be the approaching 2nd ANZSAP joint meeting to be held at Lincoln University 2nd - 5th July 2012. Organisation is progressing well with the website up and running http://www.anzsap.org/ and information currently being added. I encourage you to mark these dates in your diary. Please see the item in this newsletter regarding submission dates for full and one-page papers as well as a profile on the speakers presenting the ASAP sponsored lectures.

Planning is also well underway for the ISRP-ISNH joint meeting being hosted by ASAP in Canberra in 2014. Please see the item in this newsletter and become familiar with the conference logo which you will begin to be see more of in coming months.

In this newsletter you will also find an obituary for Dr Eryl Hugh Pitt which has been kindly submitted by Professor Lindsay Falvey.

I trust you will enjoy this newsletter.
Russell Bush

2012 Second ASAP and NZSAP joint meeting (ANZSAP)

Lincoln University will be the venue for the 2nd ANZSAP joint meeting to be held 2nd - 5th July 2012. Organisation is already well underway to provide an invigorating scientific, field and social program for all delegates. A website http://www.anzsap.org/ is now available and will provide information on the scientific program, registration, accommodation as well as links for manuscript submission and a guide for authors.

Important dates for submission of ASAP full and one-page papers are:

• Full papers for the special edition of Animal Production Science - 14th October 2011
• One page papers for the ASAP conference proceedings - 31st January 2012

For more information about the 2012 ANZSAP joint meeting please contact:
Andy Greer or Sabrina Greenwood at Lincoln University.

Peter Wynn has kindly put together the following profiles for the invited presenters of the ASAP sponsored lectures at this conference.

Underwood lecturer for 2012
Given the fact that Professor Eric Underwood pioneered many of the principles of ruminant nutrition in Australia, it is fitting that one of Australia's key scientist in resolving the complex problems of greenhouse gas emissions from ruminants, Professor Roger Hegarty be invited to deliver the Underwood oration for 2012.

Roger has honed a very productive research career with NSW Department of Primary Industry initially at EMAI Camden and then at the Beef Research Unit in Armidale before joining the University of New England as Professor of Nutrition. His expertise in sheep and cattle nutrition has been channelled through the key national research funding agencies to identify the main factors associated with methane production from the rumen of grazing animals. He now has an impressive laboratory complete with metabolism chambers to evaluate the key dietary and environmental factors that determine the contribution of ruminants to global warming. The establishment of phenotypic lines of sheep displaying low and high methane output will also be extremely useful in elucidating these factors. The photo shows Professor Hegarty (left) and Professor John Nolan with some of their metabolism chambers at UNE.

The McClymont lecturer for 2012
The McClymont lecturer for 2012 Professor Wayne Bryden has contributed significantly in the fields of research and teaching in monogastric nutrition and toxicology for 35 years, most of which has been with the University of Sydney. He was appointed Foundation Professor of Animal Studies at the University of Queensland Gatton in 2002.

Wayne has championed a systems approach to his teaching and research particularly in the area of mycotoxicosis and production efficiency across pigs, poultry and the commercial herbivore species including horses, sheep and cattle. He co-chaired the Gordon Research Conference on Mycotoxins and Phycotoxins in 2005 and is a member of the WHO Expert Panel on Food Safety. His current research interests also include factors that influence feed quality, amino acid metabolism, the relationship between diet and immunity, and the influence of maternal nutrition on equine foetal development.

The principles for his approach were gleaned from the lectures received as a Rural Science student from Professor McClymont as he developed his holistic approach to studying agricultural ecosystems. Wayne will be drawing on his experience to provide insights into some of the challenges confronting the livestock industries in the 21st century.

The Barnett lecturer for 2012.
The tragic loss of one of Australia's most prominent animal welfare scientists, Dr John Barnett to the Victorian bushfires left a major void in our scientific capacity in this important area of animal production. His life and scientific contributions will be honoured in 2012 with an address from one of John's closest associates. Dr Greg Cronin worked closely with John on many aspects of welfare of laying hens in commercial cages while with the Victorian Department of Primary Industry and the University of Melbourne Animal Welfare Centre. They also teamed to study maternal interaction with piglets leading the design of the "Werribee farrowing crate" currently being assessed for adoption by the commercial pig industry. Ever since he completed his PhD at Wagenigen, Greg's studies in animal behaviour have been well recognised internationally and have been recorded in a significant volume of academic publications. He currently lectures at the University of Sydney. There is perhaps no area of animal production that faces greater challenges in today's society than the science of animal welfare. Greg will address many of these challenges in his oration.

The Harry Stobbs lecturer for 2012.
Harry Stobbs was recognised nationally and internationally for his contributions to our understanding of the plant/animal interaction, particularly his work on understanding grazing behaviour on different sward types in the tropical environment.

The Stobbs trust fund committee have endowed a lectureship ever since his retirement to attract a leading scientist in grazing animal management to address our Society. This year they have crossed the Tasman to nominate a brilliant young New Zealand scientist currently working with Dairy NZ.

After graduating from the National University of Mar del Plata - National Institute of Agricultural Technology INTA Balcarce. Buenos Aires as an Animal Production specialist, Dr Pablo Gregorini headed to the USA to complete a PhD at the University of Arkansas. After postdocing at the USDA-ARS, Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit. University Park, Pennsylvania, he was hired by Dairy NZ and currently works out of the Dairy Research Centre at Hamilton New Zealand.

He has fast developed a formidable reputation in the area of the modelling of grazing systems for dairy cattle and for their production of methane. His cutting-edge research in this area has been recognised by the receipt of a number of "early career" awards and been invited to speak at many international forums. The use of models to predict grazing management outcomes will be important for the conservation of our farming environment. Dr Gregorini will explore aspects of this in his address.

2014 ISRP-ISNH-ASAP joint meeting

The 2014 International Symposium of Ruminant Physiology (ISRP) and International Symposium Nutrition of Herbivores (ISNH) joint meeting, hosted by ASAP, will be held September 8-12 in Canberra. For more information please contact Pietro Celi at Sydney University.

A logo has been finalised and planning is well under way to make this a memorable event. A contingent from the organising committee will be attending the ISNH8 symposium in September at Aberystwyth University, Wales to promote this event.

Vale: Dr Eryl Hugh Pitt

Eryl Pitt, one of Australia's great early international agricultural consultants died on May 16, 2011 after a long struggle with cancer. He was in his 71st year.

Once a member of AAAC, ASAP and AIAS, he was known throughout the industry as a pioneer of consulting with a huge heart in a large frame that frequently defended the exploited. A larger-than-life character with a charisma that brought together an unusual group in the company that he named MPW Rural Development, Eryl was the most innovatively unconventional of the leaders of his time. The central "P" of MPW was for Pitt and he was certainly central to the company's vision and approach. His MPW colleagues - Jerry Murray, Dick Wittenoom, John Leake, Lindsay Falvey, Phil Young, Wayne Haslam and Val Kelly became a community thanks to Eryl's vision. Mostly following Eryl's personal philosophy of self-motivation, coupled with his vocal distrust of accountants and bureaucrats, the group subsisted in a unique fee-sharing structure that retained incentives and responsibilities where Eryl felt they should be.

Eryl thrived on laissez faire structures and when the company grew and became more conventional, it was time for him to move on. But he never really left, and at the final Board meeting in which he was an agenda item, his broad welcoming smile was remembered - like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland. That smile reappeared whether Eryl was formally in the company or not. Even in his absence the Board would frequently surmise on "what Eryl would have done" in approaching an issue.

Eryl was a kind man. He picked up waifs around the international consulting world and advocated their causes. His own life included great sadnesses, which he would talk about without burdening others. In many ways, Eryl was the Huckleberry Finn of the Australian international consulting community. There was a wisdom untouched by the strictures of his days at the Universities of New England and Queensland where he gained his agricultural science and veterinary degrees respectively. Mark Twain might well have said that Eryl never let his schooling interfere with his education.

Eryl was a creative person, he thought out and expressed strong opinions and he was passionate in correcting any wrongs he thus discerned. Only those who have experienced Eryl in full creative flight can know what an awesome sight it was. Whether it was confronting drunken machine gun wielding goons in Uganda or berating Bangladeshi customs officials who prejudicially decided to check the big Australian's bags, he wanted the right thing done - and now! Many saw his big fist hammer Canberra meeting table when officials raised his wrath with their feathered fastidiousness.

Eryl was also an entrepreneur, he started countless ventures. His veterinary practices were unconventional - he saw the need to enhance services to his clients by starting supporting businesses; something that is now accepted practice, but in those days frowned upon. He started a wine business in Coonawarra, converting pastoral land to vines, in the 1970s. His ventures in helping marginalized Filipino farmers were a visionary combination of local entrepreneurship and buying up over corrupt bankrupt banks so that farmers could move out of debt and become creditworthy. His animal export ventures included direct linking of markets to suppliers when many others were still simply using agents.

His hundred or so international consulting assignments are a lasting testimony to him. While impossible to quantify, he has had an impact on the lives of hundreds-of-thousands of poor households in Asia and Africa. They have been touched by Eryl's innovative livestock project ideas, now embedded in major development projects financed by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and AusAID.

It was once said that Eryl was the model for Robert Drewe's novel 'A Cry in the Jungle Bar' - a rollicking story about a bull-like livestock expert who lumbered through his tour of duty with a UN agency in Asia. Whether true or not, Eryl had that same gift of honesty and liking people that some now lament as lacking in the international scene.

Those who knew and worked with this extraordinary agricultural consultant across his five professional decades each have their own stories about Eryl. And no two sets of those memories can ever be shared as the same, even about the same incident. But what is shared is the thrill and thanks that arise from reliving wonderland moments with Eryl. For it is then that the smile of the Cheshire cat reappears.

(based on an eulogy prepared by Jerry Murray, John Leake, Lindsay Falvey, Phil Young, Wayne Haslam and Val Kelly, and read by Val Kelly at the funeral service on 26 May 2011).

Prof. Lindsay Falvey FTSE FAIAST

Contact Us

Russell Bush
President,
Australian Society of Animal Production
Faculty of Veterinary Science
University of Sydney
Private Bag 400
NARELLAN NSW 2567
Tel: +61 2 9351 1785
Fax: + 61 2 9351 1693
Mobile: 0429 986 022
Email: russell.bush@sydney.edu.au

Peter Wynn
Secretary,
Australian Society of Animal Production
http://www.asap.asn.au/
School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences
Charles Sturt University
Locked Bag 588
WAGGA WAGGA NSW 2678
Tel: +61 2 6933 2938
Fax: +61 2 6933 2991
Mobile: 0428679954
Email: pwynn@csu.edu.au