Kate Plush
SunPork – South Australia
Kate Plush is the Science, Technology and Adoption Manager at SunPork. Kate originally studied a PhD in the area of lamb survival, but as she finished her studies, an opportunity opened up with the Pork CRC. With a plethora of transferable skills and expertise, Kate joined the pork industry and has never looked back. Kate has now worked in research and development for the pork industry for eight years, beginning with a keen focus on piglet survival, but has now worked her way up to lead the entire R&D team at SunPork.
For Kate, no two days working in the pork industry are the same. Kate often finds herself at conferences with other global industry leaders in livestock R&D, but you’ll just as frequently find her on a farm doing hands-on work with pigs, providing training for staff, or in the office working on new research ideas to improve the welfare of Australian pigs and the quality of Australian pork.
The research that Kate’s team produces covers the whole value chain including nutrition, genetics, reproduction, behaviour, welfare, meat quality and more. But despite the broad range of her skills, Kate still retains her keen passion for piglet survival and takes any opportunity to continue her work in the field.
The thing that Kate loves most about the Aussie pork industry is the connectedness of participants along the entire value chain. From farmers to researchers, the industry is congruent and working towards a common goal, which provides a sense of community for those involved.