| | Ground-breaking Alberta research and leading-edge Alberta technology are proving to be a powerful combination for progress on the nutrient management scene. The results could have the potential to reduce nutrient losses to the environment, while saving Alberta’s feedlot industry millions of dollars annually in feeding costs.
A research team led by Dr. John Basarab of Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development is identifying feed efficient breeding bulls using data collected by a monitoring system invented and developed by Airdrie-based GrowSafe Systems Ltd.
To assess feed efficiency, the team is using an innovative measure called net feed intake. Basarab explains, “We used to measure feed efficiency with a trait called feed to gain ratio, which means the amount of feed it takes to get a pound of gain. The problem with that measure is that it’s mixed up with body size, growth rate, appetite and body composition.” Selecting cattle with a lower feed to gain ratio would result in a faster growing, larger animal with an increased appetite, but not a
more efficient animal.
Net feed intake offers a more accurate way to assess feed efficiency. It is the difference between an animal’s actual feed intake and its expected feed requirements for maintenance and growth. “By definition net feed intake is adjusted for body size and average daily gain …[so this trait] is closely related to the energy required for maintenance or feed utilization,” says Basarab. An animal with a lower net intake requires less energy to maintain its body, so more of the feed it eats goes to weight gain.
Net feed intake is a heritable trait that varies widely within cattle breeds. Selecting and breeding for a more feed efficient animal could have significant economic and environmental benefits. Basarab’s research shows the difference in feed intake between the most efficient and least efficient animals would translate into huge savings in feed costs for feedlot operations with very efficient animals.
On the environmental side, Basarab says, “If animals are truly more efficient, then less should be going up into the air and less should be coming out the back. …Both Australian researchers and ourselves have shown that the efficient cattle produce approximately 15 to 17% less methane [a greenhouse gas] and about 15 to 20% less manure nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.”
Currently the team is running a bull test at Olds College, the first step to moving the research into a commercial venture. This fall, Cattleland Feedyards near Strathmore will begin a full commercial test to measure feed efficiency of about 800 bulls a year.
GrowSafe’s technology for monitoring feeding behaviour is integral to Basarab’s research. Previously, systems to monitor feed intake could measure only one animal at a time, and so were too expensive and laborious for large studies. GrowSafe has raised monitoring capabilities to a new level. Its systems are able to very accurately and continuously monitor many animals at a time, and to translate the collected data into practical information.
Basarab says, “In the GrowSafe system, every animal in the pen has its own unique electronic identification [EID], a radio frequency transponder in its ear tag. That transponder is ISO approved and is the kind that CCIA [Canadian Cattle Identification Agency] uses for its national identification program.” When an animal with an EID gets close to a GrowSafe sensor on a feed bunk, the system records which animal is present, how long it stays there, how much it eats and how aggressively it eats.
Alison Sunstrum, Vice-President of GrowSafe, says the company’s advances offer some phenomenal possibilities for research and commercial applications. “This type of technology is the only technology available in the world that can monitor an animal continuously while in a production environment. …Our research market has greatly expanded largely because of the [research] work that has been done up here.” GrowSafe has already installed its technology at several major U.S. universities.
The two largest U.S. feedlots have GrowSafe commercial research systems, and the company is planning commercial tests in Alberta. For feedlot operations, data on feeding behaviour can be used for such things as early identification of non-performing animals and sick animals (an animal significantly alters its feeding behaviour when becoming ill). Such production efficiencies have spin-off environmental benefits because efficient animals produce less manure and less methane.
For more information, contact John Basarab (403-782-8032; john.basarab@gov.ab.ca) or Alison Sunstrum (403-540-4177; als@growsafe.com). |
|