Florian Grandl

Tell us about yourself (Who are you? Where are you from? What is your educational background?)

Florian Grandl from Germany (Bavaria); Masters in Agricultural Economics and Organic Agriculture from University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna; now PhD student at ETH Zurich (Group of Animal Nutrition, Prof. Michael Kreuzer)

What is your area of expertise?

Environmental impacts of livestock production systems; ruminant nutrition; measurement of enteric methane and feed and digestion related trait in ruminants.

Where does your focus lie within your current project(s)? (related to methane)

Methane emissions of dairy cows and longevity; phenotyping methane and feed-related traits for genetic evaluations.

What would be the added value for you of joining an international researchers network? (such as the METHAGENE network, or the RuminOmics project)

Cooperation in networks on methane emissions and feed intake/efficiency in ruminants; approaches for large-scale phenotyping of methane emissions and feed intake under practical farming conditions.

What and/or who inspired you to make a career in science?

Farming practice: farming shapes our landscape and many of our most beautiful spots in nature. My wish is to help improving farming systems to cope with the various demands they face in a sustainable way.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

The complexity and the interrelationships both in problems and in their solutions.
The practical relevance of agricultural research (in contrast to the more fundamental research in many natural/life sciences disciplines).

What is your most stand-out or surprising moment in science so far?

“All roads lead to Rome”: very different paths can still take you to the same goal.