Rate My Professor Mark Trotter

Professor Mark Trotter serves as Professor in Precision Livestock Management within the School of Medical and Applied Sciences at Central Queensland University (CQU). He is a member of the Future Farming Institute and the Precision Livestock Research Group, operating in the Research Division of the Institute for Future Farming Systems. Trotter holds a Bachelor of Rural Science (Honours) and a PhD, both from the University of New England (UNE), where he previously worked. Having grown up on a dairy farm on the mid-North Coast of New South Wales, he gained practical experience in a range of livestock operations early in life.

His research specializations encompass precision livestock management, with interests in spatio-temporal variability in agricultural systems and the development of sensors and management techniques that allow producers to enhance production and efficiency despite variations in soils, plants, and animals. These efforts are situated within Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences, particularly Agriculture, Land and Farm Management, and Agricultural Spatial Analysis and Modelling. Trotter has earned prestigious awards, including the Fulbright Future Scholarship to New Mexico State University and The Ohio State University in 2019, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Science and Innovation Award for Young People in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for Remote monitoring of livestock grazing behaviour through spatial technologies in 2011, and the AW Howard Memorial Trust Travel Grant for the Precision Pastures study tour of New Zealand in 2010. Key publications include Predicting lameness in sheep activity using tri-axial accelerometer in GPS collars (2018), Developing a simulated online model that integrates GNSS, weather and pasture data to predict daily grass intake in grazing dairy cows (2021), Opportunities to monitor animal welfare using the five freedoms with precision livestock management on rangelands (2022), and Small ruminant landscape distribution: A literature review (2023). His contributions advance sensor-based technologies for livestock monitoring, behaviour analysis, and welfare in grazing systems.