Doctoral Student – Pasture Impact on Dairy Cow Welfare

About the role

This full‑time, on‑site doctoral position at Massey University’s Manawatu campus focuses on evaluating how different pasture mixes and farm management styles affect dairy cow behaviour, welfare and production.

Key responsibilities

• Design and conduct experiments comparing standard and diverse pasture mixes under regenerative and contemporary grazing practices.
• Deploy wearable livestock technologies (GPS collars, behaviour sensors, rumen boluses) to collect behavioural and physiological data.
• Analyse large datasets to link animal‑level metrics with welfare outcomes.
• Prepare academic papers, present findings at conferences, and contribute to interdisciplinary research teams.

Required profile

• Completed Master’s degree with a strong academic record in a relevant discipline.
• Demonstrated research capability, including literature review and big‑data analysis.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for academic publishing.
• Strong organisational and time‑management abilities to meet research milestones.
• Commitment to ethical research practices and openness to supervision.

Required skills

• Proficiency in R statistical software.
• Experience with ArcGIS for spatial data analysis.

What we offer

• Access to experienced supervisors and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• State‑of‑the‑art livestock monitoring equipment.
• Opportunity to apply for a Massey University Doctoral Scholarship.