In the inaugural episode of Dairy Digressions, host Matt Lucy, PhD, sits down with Jennie Pryce, PhD, principal research scientist at Agriculture Victoria and professor at La Trobe University in Australia, to talk all things genetics—connecting the scientific dots behind dairy cow traits to human height to inbreeding within the population of threatened hihi birds on New Zealand’s Tiritiri Mātangi Island. They discuss how Jennie came to be interested in dairy science—from showing calves in the All Britain Calf Show as a child to her trailblazing career in dairy genetics. The two marvel at the past 50 years of advances and investments in genetic sequencing and how they have impacted not just the dairy industry, but all types of plant and animal breeding. They also dig into what a genetics lab looks like and how researchers are working with massive data sets and super computers, including Jennie’s best advice for a career in genomic science.

Season 1, Episode 1 Show Notes

Learn more about Dr. Jennie Pryce and connect with her on Twitter @jenniepryce.

Learn more about the American Dairy Science Association and its journals, JDS Communications and the Journal of Dairy Science.

Catch up on the papers discussed on the episode:

Synchronization of breeding and its impact on genetic parameters and evaluation of female fertility traits, Journal of Dairy Science (2022)

A saturated map of common genetic variance associated with human height, Nature (2022)

Genomic signatures of inbreeding depression for a threatened Aotearoa New Zealand passerine, Molecular Ecology (2023)