Matthias Schilde: New Researcher Ruminant Nutrition
In February Matthias Schilde has started as a Researcher in the R&D Ruminant Nutrition team of Schothorst Feed Research.
Matthias is a native German. Following his passion about cattle, he completed his apprenticeship as a dairy farmer in 2012. In 2015, he graduated with a B.Sc.agr in Animal Science at the Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany, and a thesis about the fermentation characteristics of pasture-based grasslands in the Hohenheim Gas Test. In 2018, Matthias graduated with honours with a M.Sc.agr. degree in Animal Science at the same university. Under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Hummel, his M.Sc.agr. thesis was about the validation of a chewing sensor and its use in the development of on-farm models to predict feed intake in cows.
During his Ph.D. in Animal Nutrition under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Dr. Sven Dänicke at the Institute of Animal Nutrition of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) in Braunschweig, Germany, Matthias conducted RUSITEC and exact-feeding trials for the development of feeding strategies and the evaluation of feed additives combined with different ration types which aimed at reducing enteric methane emissions in dairy cows under the holistic view of improving their health during the transition period.
From 2021 until January 2023, Matthias intensified his research in the field of empirical modelling and worked in a post-doc position within an international research project at the FLI. This position gave him the opportunity to focus his research on the evaluation of seaweeds and forage types with special emphasis on the effects on the rumen microbiome, enteric methane formation and the immune system of cows. During this time, Matthias was a speaker at national/international conferences, acting member in the “Standards Commission for Straight Feeding Stuffs at the Central Committee of the German Agriculture” (ZDL Normenkommission), supervisor of B.Sc. and M.Sc. theses, guest lecturer and successfully acquired third-party funds.
At Schothorst Feed Research, Matthias will work on feed evaluation, precision feeding in dairy cows and provide international consultancy and training.