Catherine Duchaux

Intern 2014

Overview

My name is Catherine Duchaux and I come from France. I studied in Agronomy at Agrocompus Ouest in Rennes. I chose to do my abroad internship in New Zealand at the Field Research Centre at Lincoln University. I had the chance to work with Dr. Alistair Black and his staff. I still thank Alistair and the other people who taught me a lot of things about pasture and pasture management.

During the five months that I spent in Lincoln I worked mainly on two projects. The first one was a trial on the association between clover and tall fescue. We wanted to determine which mixture of the different species was best for production and the best nutritional value for sheep. I took samples of pasture, sorted the species and also managed the sheep into the plots. The other trial that I took part in was about lupin grazing. It was amazing to see sheep fed with lupin! I participated in the collection of samples with Travis and Alistair, I sorted the species and I had the chance to do some laboratory analysis on the lupin samples. 

My few months at Lincoln University were an amazing experience for me and I learnt a lot of things. The staff are very friendly and I spent a really good time at the Field Research Center.

Now I work in France. After my graduation in 2015 I took a job with sheep breeders. I give advice to them and my internship in Lincoln helped me to advise them about pasture and pasture management.

Mount Cook