This time last year, Canada’s beef industry was coping with the Lakeside-XL beef recall. That event focused attention on the safety of Canadian beef, and the practices that the beef-packing industry uses to manage food safety risks. Since the late 1990s, North America’s beef processors have used Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point plans (also called […] Read more
More Than One Way to Skin a Cow
Does Feeding Distillers Grains Affect Beef Quality?
Dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) are widely used in North American feedlot rations. Feedlot operators can quickly and easily calculate the impact of DDGS on animal performance and carcass grade, but determining how DDGS might affect retail beef quality is much more diffi cult and expensive. Feeding DDGS may increase polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) […] Read more
How Does Feeding DDGS Affect Manure Nutrient Levels?
When bio-ethanol is produced from corn, wheat or other grains, yeast microbes convert the grain starch into glucose, and ferment the glucose into ethanol. The non-starch components of the grain are not converted to ethanol, and end up in distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and other byproducts. Fibre, protein, fat, and mineral levels are […] Read more
RESEARCH – for Oct. 10, 2011
Rumen microbes convert dietary starch and fibre into volatile fatty acids, which cattle absorb and use as an energy source. On high-grain diets, rapid volatile fatty acid production from starch causes rumen pH to drop (become more acidic). Grain overload (acute acidosis) can occur when cattle that are not adequately adapted to a high energy […] Read more
Research – for Sep. 12, 2011
The two largest variable costs facing the cattle-feeding sector are the calf and the feed needed to finish it. This makes the feed: gain ratio a key measure of efficiency. This column features a few research projects that illustrate how feedlot feed: gain (and growth rate, days on feed and carcass weight) have improved over […] Read more
CLA And Omega-3
Consumers have shown considerable interest in “healthy” fats and “bad” fats in recent years. The potential health attributes of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and omega-3 fatty acids have led to considerable media focus, consumer confusion, marketing opportunities. Stores have fish, yogurt, eggs and bagels with omega-3 labels. Where is the omega-3 labelled beef? This article […] Read more
Research – for Jun. 13, 2011
Vitamin A is essential for many biological processes. Cattle cannot manufacture vitamin A themselves, so it must come from the diet. Vitamin A is found at higher levels in fresh green forage, and at much lower levels in weathered forage and grain. It can be stored in the liver and fat when the diet contains […] Read more
RESEARCH – for May. 16, 2011
Trichomoniasis (trich) and bovine genital campylobacteriosis (vibrio) both cause early abortions, infertility, and a long calving season. If repeat breeders aren’t noticed during the breeding season, the first sign of these venereal diseases may be a high percentage of open and late cows at pregnancy checking in fall. These diseases are very costly in terms […] Read more
Do People Catch Antibiotic Resistance From Cattle?
Livestock are often blamed for a lot of the antimicrobial resistant pathogens encountered in human medicine. But if antimicrobial use in cattle really contributed to antimicrobial resistance in human pathogens, wouldn’t the feedlot staff who use veterinary antimicrobials to treat sick cattle be the first people to develop antimicrobial resistance? Fortunately, those questions have already […] Read more
Research – for Mar. 14, 2011
Health Canada’s Veterinary Drug Directorate has approved a number of different products that improve the growth performance and feed efficiency of feedlot cattle. There is some confusion about how some of the newer growth promotants work. Here’s a quick summary of some of the growth promotants the feedlot sector uses. Ionophores alter how the feed […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
