Category: Livestock

Across parts of the Canada and the U.S., summer is making its presence felt. Intense heat has enveloped and put in danger areas of the U.S. while this week in Western Canada, some much needed heat is starting to dry out flood ravaged areas and give crops the boost they've been waiting for. Things can... Read More

It's tough being a small fish in a big pond. In this case, Canada's beef industry is that minnow in the giant ocean that is the U.S. beef industry. Or perhaps that's not fair — it would seem the big hiccup with the entire mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) fiasco is that, according to... Read More

To say it was a tough winter is perhaps an understatement. High feed costs, cold weather and the dollar at par or better weighed on the cattle market well into the spring. Add the misery of more stringent COOL requirements, and there have been some grumpy faces in the cattle market these days. Brian Perillat,... Read More

So, we now know the benefits of multi-species grazing, and how to choose a guardian dog for predation control, but how do we keep the little critters from escaping? At the Multi-Species Grazing Workshop hosted by Sexton Grazing and Consulting in Hanley, SK, we spoke to Jason Williams, Western Canada sales agent with Tru-Test. In... Read More

Purebred cattle operations rely largely on DNA for parentage verification and identifying potential genetic defects, but where is the rest of the industry at with genomics? Is there a role for genome mapping in commercial herds? How will it help the industry as a whole? "There's genomic tools for every sector of the value chain... Read More

Perhaps I should preface this list with a caveat — the best way to make perfect hay is to ensure it doesn't get rained on. And now that we've all stopped belly-laughing we can get down to the business of making hay in a more realistic setting. I've listened to Dr. Dan Undersander, from the... Read More

The Canola Council of Canada recently announced the findings from an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada-funded Chinese study that suggests dairy cattle fed canola meal significantly increased their total milk production. The study shows that when used in dry rations, meal from Canadian canola can increase daily milk production by .6 kilograms per cow, according to... Read More

There is many a cowboy who likely wouldn't dream of kicking the cows off his land and running sheep or goats. We get that. But if you haven't thought about the benefits of using sheep and goats on pasture, you may be missing out on a very efficient means of getting more out your existing... Read More

A few weeks ago, I visited Mike Dugan, meat lipid scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, to ask about feeding flax seed to pigs to increase omega-3s in pork, and thus diversify the consumer base. But, one may ask, where's the beef? Well, a current study at the Lacombe Research Centre in Alberta is looking... Read More

Determining when to take first, second and subsequent cuts of alfalfa is part science and part art. What's more, relative feed value and yield tend to peak at early bud then part ways soon after. For the beef producers in the crowd, early flowering is going to offer biggest yields with good quality, but our... Read More