Brandon VanSoest Position/Title: Ph.D. email: bvansoes@uoguelph.ca Phone: Office: LinkedIn

I was born and raised in a small town in Northwest Indiana, USA with aspirations of becoming a veterinarian. With those dreams in mind, I attended Purdue University to attain a Bachelor's degree in Animal Sciences. However, through internships and participating in undergraduate research opportunities decided to pursue dairy cattle nutrition. This led me to Michigan State University, where I was fortunate to work with Dr. VandeHaar on a thesis-based Master's degree in Animal Sciences with a focus on dairy nutrition. During this time my research focused on the effects of feeding transition milk to newborn calves on health, growth, and GIT development.

Currently, I have joined Dr. DeVries in Animal Biosciences to pursue a PhD degree. My research focus is on dairy cattle nutrition and health on farms with automated milking systems (AMS). We are trying to answer 3 main questions: “what is the current prevalence of subclinical ketosis (SCK) on AMS farms across Canada”, “what factors are causing the increased prevalence of SCK in AMS”, and “what can we supplement nutritionally to improve the metabolic status (reduce the likelihood of cows experiencing SCK) of these cows”. The idea behind this research is to help improve the health of dairy cattle on AMS farms. To answer the first 2 questions, we conducted a trial including 184 AMS farms across Canada and surveyed the farmers on management practices. For the final question, we supplemented a glycerol product to the cows both before and after calving through the feed offered at the feed bunk. While the data is still being analyzed, we anticipate publishing our findings soon. Going forward, our lab is going to investigate the effects of moving the glycerol supplementation to be offered through the AMS instead of at the feed bunk. Upon graduation, my goal is to work in a technical support role in the dairy nutrition industry, where I can further my knowledge base as well as assist dairy farmers and colleagues solve issues faced on the farm.