A competitive cow-calf sector requires an adequate supply of forage. Increasing forage quality and yield allows more cow-calf pairs to be maintained per acre of forage, or reduces the number of forage acres needed to maintain the same number of cow-calf pairs. Better yields come from the development of better varieties and production practices. Statistics […] Read more
Canada’s beef industry supports forage research
Lack of private investment has left Canada’s beef producers reliant on public forage breeding and production research programs
Flipping for mechanically tenderized beef
All food surfaces carry bacteria, including steaks and roasts. Because beef cooks from the outside in, the outer surface is exposed to higher temperatures for a longer time than the inside of the beef. The heat of cooking will inactivate bacteria as long as they remain on the outside of cuts, and the surface is […] Read more
Hot air doesn’t just come from cattle
Not all science is good science, and sometimes good journals can publish bad science
In late July, a very popular and well-respected scientific journal called Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published “Land, irrigation, water, greenhouse gas, and reactive nitrogen burdens of meat, eggs, and dairy production in the United States” (PNAS 111:11996-12001). The authors, a physicist from Bard College in New York, a physicist and a graduate […] Read more
A new look at acidosis
Some rumen microbes prefer to break down fibre, while others thrive on sugars and starches. This allows cattle and other ruminants to take advantage of a wide variety of different feeds. If the feed contains a lot of poorly digestible fibre, the fibre-digesting microbes will predominate. This allows ruminants to survive in Canada’s long, cold […] Read more
Ergot – low levels cause big problems
Ergot develops when a fungus called Claviceps purpurea infects susceptible grass and grain plants during flowering. Rye is the most susceptible annual crop, followed by triticale, then wheat. Barley and oats are less susceptible but not completely resistant. Ergot is not a concern in corn but it can infect a number of perennial grasses. Cool, […] Read more
Antimicrobial resistance: global report on surveillance
The World Health Organization’s “Antimicrobial resistance: global report on surveillance” was released this spring. The WHO’s report was quite comprehensive and well balanced, compared to much of the media attention that regularly swirls around this issue. Antimicrobial use leads to increased antimicrobial resistance in bacteria. The misuse or overuse of antimicrobials in human or animal […] Read more
Better tests for trich and vibrio
Research on the Record
Trichomoniasis (trich, or “trick”) and bovine genital campylobacteriosis (vibrio) are venereal diseases that cause early embryonic death, repeat breeding, large numbers of open cows at the end of the breeding season, an extended calving season, and enormous economic losses. The microbes that cause trich and vibrio live in the reproductive tracts of infected cattle, but […] Read more
The high cost of shortchanging cows
Last month’s column talked about how cold, snowy winters increase the energy needs of cows, especially when wintered on pasture, and how cows will use their body fat reserves to maintain themselves if the feed doesn’t provide enough energy. Reproductive performance will drop if thin cows don’t recover their body condition. A 2013 paper published […] Read more
Beam me up
Using irradiation to improve beef safety
No one wants to throw up in zero gravity, so space programs take great care to avoid food poisoning among astronauts. Irradiation has been used to pasteurize astronauts’ food since 1966. In fact, irradiation has been the most studied of all food-processing technologies over the past 60 years. Irradiation improves food safety by fatally damaging […] Read more
Bug spray for beef?
The last two research columns have been about technologies and best practices that large and small beef packers can adopt to avoid bacterial contamination during dressing of beef carcasses, and to avoid bacterial (re)contamination of beef cuts and trim during further processing. Ground beef is more of a food safety risk than other cuts, for […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
