Rate My Professor Jamie Barwick

Dr. Jamie Barwick is a Senior Lecturer in Precision Agriculture at the University of New England, serving as a core member of the Precision Agriculture Research Group (PARG) within the School of Environmental and Rural Science. He holds a Bachelor of Rural Science (Honours) and a PhD from the University of New England, where he completed his doctorate in 2017 under Professor David Lamb, investigating the application of on-animal motion sensors for autonomous detection of sheep behaviour. Barwick joined PARG in 2011 as a livestock researcher and has since advanced his career focusing on innovative technologies for extensive livestock systems. Currently, he coordinates the Bachelor of Agriculture program, guiding students in sustainable agricultural practices.

Barwick's research interests center on precision agriculture and precision livestock management, particularly the deployment of on-animal sensors including accelerometers, GNSS, and inertial measurement units to assess spatio-temporal variability in livestock grazing patterns. His work extends to implantable sensors for individual animal identification and GIS spatial analyses applied to sheep, beef, cotton, and grains industries. He delivers courses such as PA335/435 Precision Agriculture, AGSY300 Grazing Systems, ANPR211 Animal Production Systems and Products, and RSNR120 Sustaining our Rural Environment. Barwick has earned recognition through awards including the SABL Dean’s Award for Early Career Research Excellence (2018), Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources Science and Innovation Award for Young People in Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (2017) for a real-time gastrointestinal nematode monitoring system, and Unit Commendation Awards for AGSY300 and PA335 (2021). Key publications encompass "Predicting Lameness in Sheep Activity Using Tri-Axial Acceleration Signals" (Animals, 2018), "Categorising Sheep Activity Using a Tri-Axial Accelerometer" (Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2018), "Alpaca Field Behaviour When Cohabitating with Lambing Ewes" (Animals, 2020), "A Pilot Study Using Accelerometers to Characterise the Licking Behaviour of Penned Cattle" (Animals, 2021), and studies on liver fluke prevalence in macropods (International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife, 2021).