We are excited to share that Eseró Padrón Tejera, member of WG1 and a PhD candidate at the Department of Animal Production, University of Cordoba, carried out a Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) at the Thünen Institute of Agricultural Technology in Braunschweig, Germany, from 11 August to 11 September 2025.
During this STSM, Eseró worked under the supervision of Dr. Christina Umstatter, processing and analyzing GNSS tracking data to phenotype grazing behavior of different cattle genotypes. The first weeks were dedicated to familiarizing with the dataset, followed by pre-processing and exploring approaches to missing data caused by connectivity issues during data collection. Spatial movement patterns were studied to identify differences between breeds, and additional data from vegetation communities, including digestibility, spatial distribution, and cattle preferences, were incorporated into the analyses.
EU-LI-PHE played a crucial role in supporting this activity, both as a funding entity and by providing access to a network of scientific experts eager to share their knowledge, particularly with early-career researchers. This experience has significantly enriched Eseró’s PhD work, offering exposure to new datasets, experimental designs, and methodologies. Unlike the observational studies conducted in private farms, this STSM provided a controlled experimental dataset, allowing for broader insights into livestock phenomics across breeds, ecological conditions, and sensor technologies.
This mission highlights EU-LI-PHE’s commitment to fostering the next generation of researchers and promoting knowledge exchange across Europe.
