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“We did not see any interaction between cattle RFI ranking and diet quality.” Dr. Hushton Block, Ag Canada, Lacombe, Alta.
Beef Cattle, Livestock

Balancing your nutrients will pay off

Research looked at improving the economic and feed efficiency for beef cattle

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Dr. Hushton Block, beef cattle nutritionist previously at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Bran­don Research Centre and now currently at Lacombe, is interested in finding ways of improving the economic and feed efficiency for beef cattle. One idea Block looked at deals with how beef cattle with better (lower) residual feed intake (RFI) react with […] Read more
Researcher Yousef Papadopoulos co-leads a team that is identifying cultivars capable of maintaining 30 per cent legume stands under managed grazing.
Features

Forages targeted in Atlantic Canada

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The Maritime beef industry is largely comprised of cow-calf operations that produce replacement heifers and market feeder calves. The Atlantic Beef Products plant in Albany, P.E.I., is the only federally inspected plant within the Atlantic region. With the projected growth of ABP, the plant will be anticipating an increased requirement of 10,000 additional feeders per […] Read more
A well-known promoter of high-quality forages, Dan Undersander is retiring this summer.
Features, Forages

Dan Undersander’s thoughts on forages

Extension agronomist offers his tips on growing high-quality forages

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Dan Undersander, a forage extension agronomist from the University of Wisconsin, is one of North America’s best known promoters of high-quality forages. I have known and worked with Undersander for many years and sometimes we would be on the same program. As he will be retiring this summer, I wanted to record some of his […] Read more
In his long career Shabtai Bittman has studied forage production right across Canada.
Crops, Features, Forages

An ecological approach to forage research

Top AAFC research scientist shares his thoughts on growing forages

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Dr. Shabtai Bittman, one of Canada’s top sustainable cropping systems research scientists at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre in Agassiz, B.C., says growing forages for hay and pasture is very different than growing grain crops. “With forages, we are dealing with perennial crops that are subject to encroachment from other grasses and from weeds, […] Read more
Cows need to be on a rising plane of nutrition after calving to conceive and rebreed on time.
Cow-Calf, Features, Livestock

Post-calving nutrition determines next year’s success

Management: Your cow's nutritional regime will have a major influence on when and if it gets bred.

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In some areas of Canada this has been a very difficult winter to be a cow-calf producer. With last summer’s drought and the current feed shortage in those areas, many producers are left pondering what to do. Barry Yaremcio, a nutrition specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, and Murray Feist a beef cattle nutritionist with […] Read more
Bobby Farias.
Beef Cattle, Features

Ranching, Kauai style

The Kunoa cattle ranch runs 2,000 cow-calf pairs on 4,000 acres of grassland

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In the rain shadow of one of the wettest spots in the world, at 39 feet of rain per year, is the Kunoa cattle ranch on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It is one of the many ranches statewide that ship some 70,000 head of cattle each year to Canada and the U.S. mainland. However, […] Read more
Features, Forages, Livestock

Species at risk adds new emphasis to managing grasslands

New project looks at satellite mapping Canada’s range and forage lands

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The management of species at risk on pasture, rangelands and wild lands is an issue of considerable interest to most cattle producers. As a result it was highlighted at a workshop jointly sponsored by Environment and Climate Change Canada during the International Rangeland Congress in Saskatoon last summer. Several provincial environmental farm plans and producer-run […] Read more
Farmers assessed a few of the 13 sainfoin/alfalfa/grass plots last summer.
Crops, Features, Forages

Sainfoin, alfalfa and grass mixtures being tested

High legume pasture project in process

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A sprinkling of a new sainfoin was enough to ignite renewed interest in high legume pastures across Alberta and British Columbia last year. The case for high legume pastures was made long ago, both in research trials and in the field by experienced producers with the skill and nerve to turn up the alfalfa content […] Read more
Beef Cattle, Features, Livestock

The eye in the sky is watching your cows

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In the mid-’70s, as a research scientist at the Melfort Research Station, I helped Saskatchewan Agriculture evaluate the first button-type electronic ear tags on our cows at the Pathlow pasture research project. At the time, I also had a big satellite remote sensing project to monitor pasture productivity. I would tell my colleagues that our […] Read more

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