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Biography
Dr Hayley Norman is an agricultural scientist who is passionate about working with industry to achieve profitable and environmentally positive mixed farming systems in Mediterranean climates. After gaining a PhD in the reproductive ecology of annual legumes, Hayley moved to CSIRO in 2000 to conduct research in the Sustainable Grazing of Saline Lands Program. She developed an interest in the use of drought and salt tolerant native shrubs to improve profitability of livestock systems and enhance ecosystem function. Hayley conducts farming systems research to ensure the feedbase meets the year-round nutritional requirements of livestock and complements a profitable cropping system. She enjoys working in multidisciplinary teams and collaborates with leading farmers, tree nurseries, agronomists, hydrologists, livestock physiologists and economists. Hayley leads CSIRO's Western Farming Systems Group - a diverse team with expertise in crop and pasture agronomy, livestock nutrition, plant physiology, soil science and modelling farming systems. She is the Chair of the WA Soil and Land Conservation Council and has leadership or advisory roles in the WA Livestock Research Council, WA Crawford Fund Committee, UWA Institute of Agriculture, WA Agriculture Research Collaboration. Hayley is an associate editor for the British Grasslands Journal - Grass and Forage Science.
Hayley has led research to develop novel methods to measure and predict feeding value of forage, and routinely utilises the ‘nutritional wisdom’ of sheep to identify superior plants. She utilises her expertise in ruminant nutrition, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), methods to predict diet selection and measurement of livestock performance to assist legume breeders to optimise cultivar development. This has delivered a range of industry benefits, most notable the commercialisation and trademarking of Anameka saltbush in 2014. To date, >6 million of these drought-tolerant seedlings with higher nutritional value and relative palatability have been planted by producers across Australia. Her team are working with colleagues from NSWDPI to develop national NIRS calibrations for all pasture and shrub species within the Australian feedbase, and methods to predict diet selection, diet quality and methane from sheep and cattle faecal samples. Hayley enjoys participatory research with the aim of solving on-farm problems. She has worked with farmers, universities and research agencies across southern Australia, Iraq, Syria, Tibet AR and Afghanistan.
Other Interests
Research Interests
• Mixed farming systems that are profitable and environmentally positive.
• Domestication and selection of perennial shrubs and annual legumes with a focus on improving farm profitability through higher nutritional value and relative palatability.
• Use of shrubs to provide shade and nutrients to assist animals to manage heat loads during reproduction in summer and increase survival of lambs through shelter in winter.
• Ruminant production systems for saline and arid landscapes, with projects across Australia, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China.
• Novel methods to measure the nutritional value of forage plants within livestock production systems, diet selection and animal performance.
• Development of a broad NIRS calibrations to predict nutritional value of all pasture plants within the Australian feedbase. Ongoing development of NIRS to predict methane emissions from forages and diet selection using cattle faeces.
• Seed dormancy and reproductive strategies of annual pasture plants in dry environments with the aim of improving annual legume persistence within mixed farming systems.
• Working with farmers in Australia and internationally to simultaneously improve profitability, welfare and environmental outcomes.
Professional Areas
- • Working with farmers in Australia and internationally to simultaneously improve profitability, welfare and environmental outcomes.
- • Domestication of drought-tolerant perennial shrubs to improve profitability and resilience of farming systems
- • Seed dormancy and persistence mechanisms of annual pasture plants in dry environments. Utilising annual legumes as break crops within farming systems.
- • Ruminant production systems for marginal landscapes, focussing on in salinity and aridity with research experience in Australia, Iraq, Syria Afghanistan and China
- • Nutritional value of forage plants within livestock production systems, diet selection and animal performance
- • Development of Near Infrared Spectroscopy methods to predict nutritional value of forages and animal performance
Current Roles
-
Project leader
Transformational Feedbase (with Meat and Livestock Australia, Carbon Select and DPIRD) -
Project co-leader
Near Infrared Spectroscopy calibrations for the Australian feedbase (with Meat and Livestock Australia and NSWDPI) -
Project leader
No more gaps with superrior shrub systems (with Meat and Livestock Australia and Australian Wool Innovation) -
Component leader
The impact of shade and shelter on sheep reproduction and welfare (with Meat and Livestock Australia, UWA, Murdoch University and NSWDPI) -
Project leader
Anameka shrub with annual legumes to reduce impact of drought (DAFF, Carbon Select and DPIRD) -
Group Leader
CSIRO Western Farming Systems Group
Academic Qualifications
-
1995
BSc (Agric) Hons
University of Western Australia -
2002
PhD (Distinction)
University of Western Australia -
2021
Company Directors Course
Australian Institute of Company Directors
Professional Experiences
-
2020-2022
Chair
WA Soil and Land Conservation Council -
2016-continuing
Committee member (executive)
WA Livestock Research Council -
2018-continuing
Committee member
Crawford Fund, WA -
2016-continuing
Associate Editor
Grass and Forage Science Journal
Other highlights
-
2005-2005
Pasture legume seed germplasm collection in Cyprus and Greece
-
1999-1999
Perennial legume germplasm collection Italy
-
2019-2025
Appointed as a Deputy Chair and Chair of the WA Soil and Land Conservation Council.
Grants
-
2001-2007
Sustainable Grazing on Saline Lands
-
2009-2013
Salinity in Iraq (ACIAR).
-
2011-2014
Enhance - shrubs to improve animal health. CRC Future Farm Industries
-
2001-2014
Old man saltbush improvement. CRC Future Farm Industries
-
2012-2015
ELLE - Efficent Livestock, Low Emissions (Dept Agricuture and Water Resources FtRG2)
-
2014-2018
Forage options for Afghanistan (ACIAR with multiple partners).
-
2017-2018
Australian saltbush varieties for Pakistan (ACIAR/DFAT)
-
2018-2022
Dryland Pasture Legume Systems (DAWR, GRDC, MLA & AWI, multiple partners) Leading livestock Program
-
2017-2022
Developing profitable and nutritionally secure mixed crop-livestock systems for Tibet
-
2019-2023
New Generation NIRS Calibrations (MLA DC, NSWDPI)
-
2019-2023
No more gaps with superior shrub systems (MLA, AWI)
-
2021-2026
‘A transformational and integrated feedbase for meat production in the low to medium rainfall mixed farming zones of NSW and WA. MLA, CSIRO, DPIRD, Select Carbon.
-
2022-2025
‘HALO, harvestable annual legume options.’ WA Agricultural Research Collaboration, Grains Transformation. Murdoch University, DPIRD, CSIRO.
-
2021-2026
‘Design, composition and establishment of edible shelter for improved lamb survival.’ MLA, Murdoch University, UWA, NSWDPI, University of Sydney.
-
2021-2025
‘Too hot for ewe and me’ MLA, Murdoch University, UWA, NSWDPI, University of Sydney.
-
2022-2024
‘Anameka shrub systems for drought resilient soils and landscapes.’ CSIRO Drought Mission, DAFF Future Drought Fund, DPIRD, Select Carbon, Facey Group, Fitzgerald Biosphere Group.
-
2022-2024
‘Direct sowing Anameka saltbush to reduce establishment cost and accelerate the national adoption rate of saltbush forages for climate resilience’ CSIRO Drought Mission project.
Attachments
Related links
Publications
ORCID 0000-0002-2660-9573
We have publications by Dr Hayley Norman