This is a good year to start working with a nutritionist if you aren’t already.

Feeding decisions are important breeding decisions

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

When life gets really stressful it can be hard to remember what you already know. This column probably won’t tell you anything new, but it might remind you of some important principles that can be overlooked in the scramble to buy feed and make important financial decisions. Winter feed costs are a key financial make-or-break […] Read more

Buying livestock you’re unfamiliar with has its risks so remember to vaccinate new arrivals before mixing them with your herd.

Always look a gift cow in the mouth

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

This year’s feed situation is forcing many cow-calf producers to make very difficult decisions. Those who are short of feed may cull their herds harder than usual or look for alternative feeding arrangements to winter some or all their cows. Others with feed carryover from previous years may be tempted to custom feed other people’s […] Read more


How long do growth promotants persist in soil and manure, and is there a risk they could enter surface or groundwater?

Growth promotants and the environment

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

Growth promotants dramatically improve the growth rates and feed efficiency of beef cattle. Trenbolone acetate (TBA) behaves like testosterone and is used in several feedlot implants (Component, Revalor and Synovex). Melengestrol acetate (MGA) behaves like progesterone, a pregnancy hormone. Some feedlots feed MGA to suppress estrous cycles and riding activity in heifers until a few […] Read more

Corn is a common winter grazing crop, but corn alone may not meet the protein needs of all cattle that consume it. Intercropping can help fill the protein gap.

Is this a good investment?

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

The Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) projects featured in this column are funded by the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-Off. When the check-off increased a few years ago, the BCRC’s budget rose from around 15 cents to 67 cents per head marketed. This allowed us to start some new research programs. Now that we’re a few […] Read more


Crops, pastures and haylands throughout Western and Central Canada are parched.

Today’s forage research provides tomorrow’s solutions

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

Today’s research won’t help you weather this year’s drought, but the practical information and advice you’ll read elsewhere in the September issue of Canadian Cattlemen (and at beefresearch.ca) will. Those tips, covering everything from alternative feeds to weaning, all originate from past research done by scientists and refined by producers. But producer-funded research underway today […] Read more

online feedback

… Survey says?

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

In last February’s column, I encouraged you to fill out our online beef research survey to help the Beef Cattle Research Council and other industry and government funders develop a clear set of priorities to guide our funding decisions over the next five years. Thanks for responding — we had nearly twice as many responses […] Read more


Overgrazing doesn’t just reduce above-ground growth. It also reduces root growth.

Underground herbicides

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

When I was a kid, my dad found Russian knapweed in a pasture along an irrigation canal. He explained that it was important to catch this weed quickly because it can spread very aggressively. Russian knapweed reproduces using seeds as well as by buds growing from its roots (somewhat similar to the sod-forming grasses in […] Read more

Participants at the first Feedlot School offered by the Maritime Beef Council in 2017.

Building foundational skills

If you’re new to beef production or looking to expand your skillset, start with our roundup of resources for practical skills and knowledge No matter where you are in your career, there’s always value in learning something new. When the Maritime Beef Council created the Atlantic Beef School, the goal was to provide the region’s […] Read more


The Beef Cattle Research Council has released its five-year research and extension strategy.

How Mother Nature hedges her bets

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

Pasture plants are generally classified as decreasers, increasers and invaders. Decreaser species are the plants you want to see and your cattle prefer to eat, so they face the most grazing pressure. Increaser plants tend to thrive when the decreaser species are challenged by overgrazing, drought or other sub-optimal conditions. Invaders (weeds) proliferate when increasers […] Read more

Dr. Murillo Pereira (PhD), a post-doctoral research fellow from Brazil, is the lead scientist on the USask-based projects to understand the role of fibre in feedlot cattle diets.

New study evaluates importance of forage for animal health and beef quality

This story originally appeared on the Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence website and is republished with permission. Beef producers have been raising animals in feedlots for decades and they continue to ask an important question: how much forage do beef cattle need to both stay healthy and build carcass?   University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers […] Read more