Foreword: ADSS 2020 special edition

We are pleased to introduce this special edition of Animal Production Science. This special issue contains a selection of papers that were invited or offered for presentation at the 2020 Australasian Dairy Science Symposium (ADSS) that was to be held on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, in November 2020. Unfortunately, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 symposium was cancelled. However, the organising committee, jointly with Animal Production Science, decided to continue with this special issue to capture the current state of Dairy Science as it relates to pastoral dairy systems and provide scientists who had prepared papers for the meeting an opportunity to publish.

The ADSS is the largest technical dairy science meeting in the southern hemisphere and brings together scientists from around the globe with a focus on pastoral dairy systems. The 2020 ADSS organising committee (Omar Al Marashdeh, Lincoln University; Kevin Argyle, Dairy Australia; Martin Auldist: Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources Victoria, David Barber, Agri Science Queensland; Racheal Bryant, Lincoln University; Paul Cheng, University of Melbourne; Kristy DiGiacomo, University of Melbourne; Danny Donaghy, Massey University; Callum Eastwood, DairyNZ; Sergio Garcia, University of Sydney; Brad Granzin, Subtropical Dairy Program; James Hills, University of Tasmania; Sabrina Lomax, University of Sydney; David Pacheco, AgResearch NZ; Keith Pembleton, University of Southern Queensland; John Penry, Dairy Australia; John Roche, Ministry of Primary Industries NZ; Nicole Steele, DairyNZ; Bruce Thorrold, DairyNZ) commissioned a series of invited papers that cover recent science challenges in pastoral dairy production from prominent dairy scientists, and to bring a new perspective, expertise from outside the dairy industry. Offered papers were selected for inclusion based on a criteria that fit within the aims and scope of the ADSS, novelty, innovation and quality of the science presented.

This special edition includes topic areas covering the role of animal-sourced proteins in an increasingly diverse protein market (Leroy et al. 2022; Smith et al. 2022), circular economic principles for pasture-based dairy farming (Burggraaf et al. 2022), adaption to a challenging health climate (Khatun et al. 2022), dairy cow nutrition (Rogers et al. 2022) and dairy cow genetics (Pryce et al. 2022). The diversity and forward-looking nature of papers presented is evidence of the diversity and foresight present within the pastoral dairy system research community globally. In addition, five dairy science papers (Bakri et al. 2022; Belverdy et al. 2022; Colonia et al. 2022; Dias et al. 2022; Talmon et al. 2022) submitted to the journal during the period the special issue was under review have been included in this issue.

The ADSS sincerely thanks all authors who contributed papers to this special issue, along with the anonymous reviewers who worked diligently to enhance the quality of each paper. We also thank the guest editors for this special edition: Martin Auldist, Callum Eastwood, James Hills, and Keith Pembleton. We also thank Dairy Australia and Dairy NZ for their continued support of the event. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the Dairy Science community for their continued support of the ADSS during the past couple of years of uncertainty.

Keith Pembleton and Dave Barber are Co-Chairs of ADSS. Keith Pembleton was a Guest Editor for the special issue. Dave Barber helped initiate the special issue and coordinated the papers but was not involved in the review and editorial process for the papers in this issue.