Sarah Meale

Associate Professor Sarah Meale serves in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability within the Faculty of Science at the University of Queensland. She earned a Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sydney. Her academic career at the University of Queensland progressed from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer and now to Associate Professor, with a primary focus on ruminant nutrition, gut microbiology, and sustainable livestock production. Meale's research investigates strategies to enhance feed efficiency, manipulate rumen microbial communities to mitigate methane emissions, and implement early-life nutritional interventions for long-term improvements in animal performance and environmental sustainability. Her work bridges laboratory experiments, controlled animal trials, and extensive grazing and feedlot applications, frequently collaborating with industry partners.

Meale leads numerous funded projects, including those supported by Meat & Livestock Australia, such as optimizing feedlot cattle performance and emissions reduction using low-dose 3-nitrooxypropanol (2024-2026), in vivo rumen testing of feed additives (2024-2027), and the Goat Industry Sustainability Credentials Project (2023-2026). Other initiatives explore biochar for methane reduction (2021-2027) and Pongamia trees for decarbonizing beef value chains (2024-2029). Her scholarly output comprises over 66 works, including journal articles like 'Early life dietary intervention in dairy calves results in a long-term reduction in methane emissions' (Scientific Reports, 2021), 'Recent advances in enteric methane mitigation and the long road to sustainable ruminant production' (Annual Review of Animal Biosciences, 2023), 'Feed additives for methane mitigation: Recommendations for testing enteric methane-mitigating feed additives in ruminant studies' (Journal of Dairy Science, 2025), and book chapters such as 'Biochar as an animal feed ingredient' (2024). These contributions, cited over 1,800 times, significantly influence sustainable ruminant production practices in Australia and internationally, advancing lower-emission livestock systems.

Professional Email: s.meale@uq.edu.au