Building Team Chemistry: The Bigger Picture Behind Cows & Climate
Conor McCabe
Animal Biology Graduate Student, UC Davis
Program Contact
Tim Kurt
tkurt@foundationfar.org
Year Awarded 2018
FFAR award amount $486,594
Total award amount $486,594
Location Midlothian, SC
Program Layer Hen Keel Bone Health Program
Matching Funders Open Philanthropy Project
The three grant awards are the result of a competitive call for innovative proposals for research to reduce keel bone fractures in egg-laying hens. Bone fractures are one known challenge to raising hens in cage-free housing systems and are particularly prevalent in the keel, or breastbone.
Based on U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates of the number of hens needed to meet existing cage-free pledges, including pledges by all top 25 U.S. grocers, this research has the potential to improve the welfare and productivity of approximately 225 million hens by 2025.
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research is pleased to support innovative approaches to reducing bone fractures in egg-laying hens, a phenomenon that harms both productivity and hen health. Today’s farmers and ranchers face new challenges arising from a changing production environment and cutting-edge research remains critical to providing producers with science-based solutions to those challenges.Sally Rockey, Ph.D.
FFAR Executive Director Emeritus
FFAR’s Advanced Animal Systems Challenge Area supports research that improves animal health and welfare and pioneers practices that sustain our food system.
These grants were funded by a partnership with Open Philanthropy Project designed to improve the welfare and productivity of egg-laying hens and commercially raised pigs. The partnership, which supports producers’ ability to adapt to a changing animal production landscape, is funded with a $1 million grant from Open Philanthropy Project matched by a $1 million investment from FFAR.
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