Our team
Dr Hayley Norman
- Dr Hayley Norman leads CSIRO’s Anameka Saltbush project. Hayley is an agricultural scientist who is passionate about working with industry to achieve profitable and environmentally positive mixed farming systems in Mediterranean climates. Hayley has led research to develop novel methods to measure and predict the 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.
Matt Wilmot
- Matt Wilmot and the team have been involved with research into native perennial shrubs as a feed source for sheep and cattle. This work identified Old Man saltbush as a key fodder shrub for future research. As a technician in the project, Matt was involved from the inception to commercialisation of the Anameka saltbush cultivar in 2016. More recently, he has worked on the Low Rainfall Zone cropping project looking at broad acre cropping strategies in a drying climate.
Dr Sarah Rich
- Dr Sarah Rich is a Research Scientist in CSIRO’s Agriculture and Food division, based in Western Australia. Sarah has expertise in plant and crop physiology, agronomy and farming systems science. Her key research interests include crop germination, emergence, and establishment in the context of genetics x environment x management, and root morphology/physiology and the impact of belowground processes on crop success. Sarah focuses on multidisciplinary, collaborative research employing lab-to-glasshouse-to-field methodologies. She has experimental experience in running controlled environment, glasshouse and large field trials and is skilled in agricultural modelling.
Elizabeth Hulm
- Elizabeth Hulm manages the laboratory that measures the feeding value of novel forages. She has developed Near Infrared Spectroscopy methods to accurately and inexpensively predict the nutritional value of saltbushes and other Australian native shrubs. This work has enabled us to analyse thousands of individual shrub samples and identify Anameka and a cohort of elite plants for further development.
Josh Hendry
- Josh Hendry works as a research technician within CSIRO’s agriculture and food business unit, where his role involves supporting activities in animal production and plant industry. His duties include maintaining field trials in the Eastern Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions, aiding in perennial shrub sampling, animal husbandry, and the establishment and maintenance of cropping/pasture projects. The skills necessary for this job encompass crop, pasture, and stubble sampling, monitoring, and assessment, setting up soil moisture probes and sensors, conducting wool patching and analysis, conducting nutritional wet chemistry, and managing/assisting glasshouse experiments.
Paul Young
- Paul Young is a biochemist specialising in the measurement of plant secondary compounds and metabolites in livestock. Paul’s work has enabled the team to select shrubs with lower methane potential, less secondary compounds that impact animal health (such as oxalates) and higher antioxidant potential (through vitamins E and A).