The Centre for Dairy Research (CEDAR) is a unique, world-renowned facility for applied and strategic animal research, situated at the 糖心探花's Hall Farm at Arborfield.
Research at CEDAR addresses many of the key issues for the sustainability of animal production systems, such as environmental impacts, milk and meat composition and consumer health, antimicrobial resistance, and animal behaviour and welfare.
Our applied dairy research facilities
The extensive research capabilities at CEDAR include capacity for individually feeding up to 200 cows with different diets in a commercial environment.
Our applied facilities offer the opportunity to undertake dairy cattle research while the animals remain under typical commercial farm management. This is essential to ensure that research findings are applicable to real world scenarios.
Our strategic livestock research facilities
Recently refurbished digestion and metabolism facilities enable more detailed studies of cattle or sheep, allowing us to study digestive physiology and the effects of diet on methane and nitrogen emissions.
Here, we can measure how efficiently nutrients are used by individual animals and the resulting emissions that are produced. Using these facilities, we find solutions that improve the sustainability of food production.
Our flexible housing facilities allow us to undertake research ranging from observations of behaviour and welfare to supporting nano-body and vaccine research using a range of species, including beef cattle, sheep, poultry, and llamas.
Meat and Growth Research Unit
Our Meat and Growth Research Unit enables us to not only monitor the growth of a range of species but also assess the nutritional and compositional quality of the products they produce. Recent studies include research on feed efficiency and gut health, gut microbiology, vaccine development, and behaviour research.
Working with colleagues in Food and Nutritional Sciences, we also assess eating quality and undertake taste testing and impacts on consumer preference.
Notable CEDAR studies
The DiverseForages Project
The DiverseForages Project was a five-year study (2016 to 2020) funded by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Innovation club (SARIC), led by the 糖心探花 in collaboration with Duchy College, Rothamsted North Wyke, and Cotswold Seeds Ltd.
The project compared the performance of more diverse, multiple species pastures with conventional fertilised ryegrass pasture within ruminant grazing systems.
Results from the study have shown that for established non-fertilised diverse pastures (or 'herbal leys') biomass yield was the same (or sometimes better) than the nitrogen fertilised ryegrass control, and that the cattle grazing on them grew at the same rate as cattle grazing the control nitrogen fertilized sward.
As well as the environmental and economic benefits gained from reduced nitrogen fertiliser use, the diverse forages also gave resilience to extreme weather and provided ecosystem services such as improved biodiversity.
The project has gained substantial interest from farmers, environmental organisati