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|  | About Us | Current projects | Publications | Presentations | Factsheets and extension articles
Our Vision:
Livestock Research Branch: World-class partner in delivering applied and innovative solutions for a sustainable and vibrant Alberta.
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Mission Statement:
Enable the Alberta livestock industry to use research-based knowledge and technology to enhance competitiveness.
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About Us
Who we are
We are a small group of researchers consisting of:
Eduardo Beltranena - Feed Research Scientist/Lead
Matt Oryschak - Research Associate
Miranda Smit - Research Extension Coordinator - Livestock
Liangfei (Fiona) He - Research Technologist
Misaki Cho - Post-doctoral Fellow
What we do
Our team conducts original, applied animal feed research in pigs, poultry and fish focusing on:
- Novel or currently underutilized grains, legumes, oilseeds, their fractions and co-products.
- Processing methods that improve the feeding value and reduce anti-nutritional factors in feedstuffs.
- Reducing adverse effects of feeding bio-energy co-products on growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality.
- Reducing the environmental impact of poultry and pig feeding through targeted feeding strategies and feedstuff selection.
Why we do it
- Feed represents as much as 75% of the cost of production for Alberta producers. Reducing feed costs for producers is central to all of our research projects.
- Research into the feeding value of locally grown and processed pulses may permit us to reduce our reliance on imported and animal-based protein ingredients. This will also create increased market demand for local pulse crops.
- Our carcass and meat quality research is critical to safeguarding domestic and export market consumer confidence in the quality of products from animals fed bio-energy co-products.
- Expanded production of bio-fuels in Western Canada will produce large quantities of co-products. Learning more about how to integrate co-products into livestock and poultry feeding will create a local market to help clear anticipated surplus inventories.
- Our research into the feeding value of fractions may permit a single crop to be used simultaneously for human food products, bio-industrial applications and animal feeds, thereby creating opportunities to add value to raw commodities.
- The wide array of feedstuffs available in Western Canada offer opportunities for poultry and swine producers to curb their environmental footprint while maintaining, or even improving profitability.
See a more extensive overview of our research in pigs.
See a more extensive overview of our research in poultry.
Current projects
Here is a list of projects that we are currently working on.
Pigs:
- Increasing hybrid rye substitution level for wheat grain with or without enzyme on growth performance and carcass traits of grower-finisher barrows and gilts. Hybrid rye is more resistant to ergot and fusarium and has lower anti-nutritional factors. It might, therefore, be a good alternative to feeding wheat.
- Effects of dietary energy level, stocking density and feeder space on growth performance and carcass characteristics of barrows and gilts. The ability of growing-finishing pigs to perform well on lower than traditional net energy diets depends on whether they can increase feed intake, which probably depends on pen density and the number of feeders. This research studies the relationships among dietary NE level, stocking density, feeder space and sex in a commercial growout barn.
Poultry:
- Feeding increasing zero-tannin faba bean inclusions at different slopes to broiler chickens. We are feeding faba bean varieties Snowbird, Snowdrop and Tabasco at three different inclusion levels (low, medium, high) to broilers to look at effects of feed intake, growth performance and carcass characteristics.
- Feeding tannin or zero-tannin faba bean hulled or dehulled to broiler chickens. In this trial we compare feeding high-tannin faba bean varieties (Malik, Fabelle) with zero-tannin varieties (Snowbird, Snowdrop). Because most of the tannins are located in the hulls, we also look at dehulling as a process to remove tannins.
- Reducing the carbon footprint of egg and chicken production – the carbon footprint of feed accounts for 35% and 65% of the total carbon footprint of chicken and egg production, respectively. Over the next 18 months, we will be looking at the feasibility of reducing the feed-associated carbon footprint of egg and chicken meat production by as much as 20% through ingredient selection and changing dietary energy density (Anticipated project completion date – March 2018).
- Dietary manipulations to reduce ammonia emissions from laying hens – over the next 2 years, we will conduct in depth investigations into the role that diet plays in influencing ammonia emissions from laying hens. Our goal is to find cost-effective diet formulation strategies to reduce ammonia emission intensity per dozen eggs by 25% (Anticipated project completion date – March 2018).
Publications
Presentations
In the Table below is a summary of presentations given by members of the Monogastric Feed Research Group. You can click on the title to open a presentation as a pdf file.
| Date | Meeting | Presenter | Title |
| Jun 2018 | Collaborators meeting | Xun Zhou | Increasing hybrid rye substitution level for wheat grain with or without enzyme on growth performance and carcass traits of grower-finisher barrows and gilts |
| Jan. 2017 | BPS pre-conference seminar - Canola Council of Canada, Banff, AB | Eduardo Beltranena | Feeding canola meal or soy expeller at two dietary net energy levels to growing-finishing barrows and gilts
Listen to the Farmscape interview regarding this research by clicking here |
| Feb. 2016 | Western Poultry Conference, Red Deer, AB | Eduardo Beltranena | Camelina sativa co-products as feedstuffs for poultry |
| May 5, 2015 | Canola Council of Canada/Feedstuffs webinar | Eduardo Beltranena | Optimizing canola meal feeding to broiler chickens and egg layers |
| Jan. 2015 | Banff Pork Seminar, Banff, AB | Eduardo Beltranena | Impact of low energy diets on the bottom line |
| Jan. 2014 | Alberta Pork Board, Edmonton, AB | Miranda Smit | Decreasing stocking density in a growing-finishing pig barn |
| Sep. 2013 | Western Nutrition Conference, Saskatoon, SK | Matt Oryschak | Further processing for better utilization of co-products in monogastrics |
| Feb. 2013 | Atlantic Poultry Conference, Wolfville, NS | Matt Oryschak | Could co-products give corn-soybean meal a run for your money? |
| 2013 | Prairie Poultry Meeting | Eduardo Beltranena | Increasing dietary inclusion of camelina meal for laying hens: Effects on performance and egg quality |
| 2013 | Prairie Poultry Meeting | Eduardo Beltranena | Expeller-pressed vs. solvent-extracted B. napus vs. B. juncea meal for laying hens |
| 2013 | University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK | Eduardo Beltranena | Camelina, an egg out of the canola basket? |
| 2013 | Mid Egg Size workshop | Eduardo Beltranena | Managing on-farm feed mills |
| Nov. 2012 | Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium, Saskatoon, SK | Eduardo Beltranena | Moving to heavier market hogs |
| 2012 | Alberta Pork meeting, Lethbridge, AB | Eduardo Beltranena | Hog finishing practices that impact your profit margin |
| 2012 | Canola Council of Canada meeting, Winnipeg, MN | Eduardo Beltranena | Broiler AME comparison of B. napus, B. juncea, and Air-Classified fractions |
| 2012 | Canola Council of Canada meeting, Winnipeg, MN | Eduardo Beltranena | Egg production of brown layers fed solvent-extracted or extruded+pressed B. juncea or B. napus |
| 2012 | Canola Council of Canada meeting, Winnipeg, MN | Eduardo Beltranena | Canola meal inclusion and broiler performance: effect of graded inclusion of B. napus vs. B. juncea meals |
| 2012 | Canola Council of Canada meeting, Winnipeg, MN | Eduardo Beltranena | Extruded + pressed canola Juncea meal on hog growth performance, carcass traits, and jowl lipid profile |
| 2012 | Canola Council of Canada meeting, Winnipeg, MN | Eduardo Beltranena | Effects of feeding high- and low-fibre fractions of air-classified, solvent-extracted canola meal on diet nutrient digestibility and growth performance of weaned pigs |
| 2012 | Canola Council of Canada, Mexico tour | Eduardo Beltranena | Alimentación de harina canola a aves |
| 2012 | Canola Council of Canada, Mexico tour | Eduardo Beltranena | Alimentación de harina canola a cerdos |
| 2012 | | Eduardo Beltranena | Feeding Western Canadian co-products to monogastrics |
| Jul. 2012 | Poultry Science Assoc. Annual Meeting, Athens, GA | Matt Oryschak | Nutrient digestibility in Canadian-grown pulse crops compared to soybean meal for growing broilers at 15- and 29-d of age |
| Jul. 2012 | Poultry Science Assoc. Annual Meeting, Athens, GA | Matt Oryschak | Effect of increasing dietary inclusion of solvent-extracted B. juncea vs. B. napus canola meal on broiler growth performance, carcass traits and yield of carcass components |
| Jan. 2012 | 31st Centralia Swine Research Update, Kirton, ON | Eduardo Beltranena | How to mitigate the effects of feeding DDGS on carcass and pork quality? |
| Jan. 2012 | Banff Pork Seminar, Banff, AB | Eduardo Beltranena | Oilseed co-products as alternative ingredients |
| Sep. 2011 | Western Nutrition Conference, Edmonton, AB | Eduardo Beltranena | Feeding value of Western Canadian oilseed and biodiesel co-products |
| Sep. 2011 | Canola meal inclusion science cluster research review meeting, Edmonton, AB | Eduardo Beltranena | Recent canola meal research with broilers (2010-11) |
| Jul 2011 | Poultry Science Assoc. Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO | Matt Oryschak | A comparison of nutrient digestibility in wheat distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and 3 wheat DDGS fractions produced using a 2-step dry fractionation process for broilers |
| Jul 2011 | Poultry Science Assoc. Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO | Matt Oryschak | Nutrient digestibility in canola meal for broilers: Effects of oil extraction method and fractionation by air classification |
| Jul 2011 | Poultry Science Assoc. Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO | Matt Oryschak | Nutrient digestibility of 4 varieties of triticale compared to CPS wheat for broilers |
| Jan. 2010 | Banff Pork Seminar, Banff, AB | Eduardo Beltranena | Research update: Alternative feedstuffs: DDGS |
| Sep. 2010 | FOBI Network Seminar | Eduardo Beltranena | Wheat-based DDGS as a protein source in poultry feeding |
| Jul. 2009 | Poultry Science Assoc. Annual Meeting, Ralreigh, NC | Matt Oryschak | Effect of extrusion on nutrient digestibility in corn and wheat DDGS for broilers |
| Jul. 2009 | Poultry Science Assoc. Annual Meeting, Raleigh, NC | Matt Oryschak | Effect of extrusion and enzyme supplementation on nutrient digestibility in triticale DDGS for broilers |
| Jul. 2009 | Poultry Science Assoc. Annual Meeting, Raleigh, NC | Matt Oryschak | Effect of graded levels of DDGS in broiler diets on performance and breast meat yield |
| 2009 | AEP medium size egg workshop, Balzac, AB | Eduardo Beltranena | What can cause too many mid-size eggs? |
| Dec. 2008 | Posters presented at several meetings | Several | Recent advances in Alberta; Feed research with pulse seed and fractions |
| 2006 | Swine Technology Workshop, Red Deer, AB | Eduardo Beltranena | Zero-tannin fababean vs. field pea vs. soybean meal as protein sources for hogs. |
Posters
In the Table below is a summary of posters presented by members of the Monogastric Feed Research Group. You can click on the title to open a poster as a pdf file.
| Animal model | Ingredient | Title |
| grow-finish pigs | hybrid rye | Feeding hybrid rye replacing wheat grain with or without enzyme to grow-finish hogs |
| laying hens | faba bean | Increasing inclusions of faba bean in laying hen diets: Effects on productivity, egg quality and carbon intensity |
| laying hens | canola seed | Increasing inclusions of canola seed in laying hen diets: Effects on productivity, egg quality and carbon intensity |
| laying hens | various | Dietary approaches to reduce the carbon intensity of table egg production - a conservative approach |
| laying hens | various | Dietary approaches to reduce the carbon intensity of table egg production - a more aggressive approach |
| grow-finish pig | low NE, feeder space, stocking density | Effects of dietary NE value, stocking density, feeder space and sex in grow-finish hogs |
| grow-finish pig | soy expeller, canola meal | Feeding canola meal or soy expeller at two dietary net energy levels to growing-finishing barrows and gilts |
| grow-finish pig | camelina | Feeding diets with increasing camelina cake levels to nursery and grow-finish hogs |
| grow-finish pig | low energy | Feeding diets with decreasing net energy value to hogs |
| nursery pig | canola meal | Effects of feeding high- and low-fibre fractions of air-classified, solvent-extracted canola meal on diet nutrient digestibility and growth performance of weaned pigs |
| nursery pig | triticale | Comparison of 4 Spring triticale cultivars and low-protein wheat on growth performance and nutrient digestibility in weaned pigs |
| grow-finish pig | wheat DDGS | Increasing inclusions of wheat DDGS in diets for grower-finisher pigs: growth performance, carcass traits, pork yield, loin and belly quality |
| grow-finish pig | canola meal | Feeding B. juncea or B. napus canola meal at increasing dietary inclusions to growing-finishing gilts and barrows |
| grow-finish pig | canola meal | Feeding increasing inclusions of canola meal with distillers dried grains and solubles to growing-finishing barrows and gilts |
| grow-finish pig | corn DDGS | Withdrawal of corn DDGS from late finisher rations; Effects on performance, carcass traits, economics, pork quality, retail appearance, sensory evaluation, and back fat and belly quality |
| grow-finish pig | canola meal | Feeding yellow- vs. dark-seeded canola meal at increasing dietary inclusions to hogs |
| laying hens | reduced ammonia emissions | Practical dietary strategies to reduce ammonia emission intensity of table eg production |
| laying hens | camelina cake | Camelina sativa cake in practical layer diets: Effects of high dietary inclusion |
| laying hens | camelina seed, flax seed | Camelina seed vs. flaxseed for laying hens: Effects of seed processing on omega-3 content of eggs |
| laying hens | camelina meal | Evaluation of Camelina sativa meal as a feedstuff for layers: Effects of increasing dietary inclusion and layer strain on feed intake, egg production and egg characteristics |
| laying hens | camelina meal | Camelina sativa meal as a feedstuff for laying hens: II. Effects on egg quality and egg fatty acid profiles |
| laying hens | camelina meal | Evaluation of Camelina sativa meal as a feedstuff for layers: Effects of increasing dietary inclusion, copper supplementation and layer strain on post-mortem signs of toxicity, organ weights and serology |
| broilers | camelina meal | Screw-pressed Camelina sativa meal as feedstuff for broilers: Effects of graded dietary inclusion on organ weights and post-mortem signs of toxicity |
| broilers | canola meal | Effect of increasing dietary inclusion of solvent-extracted B. napus or B. juncea meals for broilers grown to 35-d of age on nutrient mass balance and calculated nitrogen emissions |
| broilers | canola meal | A comparison of B. napus and B. juncea meals and their air-classified fractions: Growth performance, carcass traits and measured AME in growing broilers |
| laying hens | canola meal | Challenging the concept of maximum dietary inclusion levels of canola meal in laying hen diets |
| broilers | faba bean, field pea | Nutrient and energy digestibility in air-classified faba bean and field pea protein and starch concentrates in 21-day old broilers |
| broiler chicks | pulses and soy | Nutrient digestibility in air-classified pulse protein concentrates and wet-fractionated soy protein concentrate for 15-d-old broiler chicks |
| broilers | wheat DDGS | Can fractionation technology enhance the nutritional value of wheat DDGS for poultry? |
| broilers | DDGS | Can feeding diets containing up to 10% DDGS maintain broiler performance while reducing feed costs? |
| broilers | - | Perches for broilers: Effect of perch configuration and dietary crude protein level on growth performance, carcass traits and profitability |
| broilers | canola meal, triticale, pulses | Combination of six posters:
- Not all canola meals are created equal: Nutritional quality of meals produced by different oil extraction methods
- B. napus and B. juncea canola meals for broilers: I. Nutrient and energy digestibility
- B. napus and B. juncea canola meals for broilers: II. Effects of increasing dietary inclusion on growth performance, carcass traits and profitability
- Can triticale be a reliable alternative to wheat in broiler diets?
- Could pulses give soybean meal a run for your money?: I. Soy- vs. pulse protein concentrates for chicks
- Could pulses give soybean meal a run for your money?: II. Whole pulses vs. soybean meal for growing broilers |
| broilers | enzymatically hydrolyzed casein | Comparison of ileal endogenous amino acid measurements in growing broilers fed an N-free diet or a diet containing a source of highly digestible protein |
Factsheets and extension articles
Links to several fact sheets, discussing topics relating to pig or poultry husbandry, as well as feed ingredients and technology, can be found by clicking on the links below.
- Benefits found feeding hybrid fall rye to hogs (The Western Producer, 2 August 2018)
- Fed up with high feed costs? Chew on this! (Swine Innovation Porc, Vol. 3, No. 18, 2018, on the effects of low NE diets, stocking density, and feeder space)
- A Quick Guide to Feeding Canadian Barley Grain to Pigs and Poultry
- 加拿大大麦饲喂猪与家禽快速指南 (Mandarin version of the Quick Guide to Feeding Canadian Barley Grain to Pigs and Poultry)
- Feeding faba bean to egg layers on egg production, egg quality, and carbon footprint (Factsheet, 06 October 2017)
- Base soybean co-product diet inclusion on trypsin inhibitors; canola on glucosinolate content (National Hog Farmer newsletter, 6 April 2017)
- There's more to pulses as feed ingredient than protein (Alberta Pulse Growers e-newsletter, 29 March 2017)
- Feed efficiency - What it means and what it tells you about your operation - part 1 (EggNotes Newsletter, June 2016)
- Feed efficiency - What it means and what it tells you about your operation - part 2 (EggNotes Newsletter, August 2016)
- Trtiticale performs in pig feeds (Information sheet, 25 July 2016)
- Feeding camelina boosts omega 3s (The Western Producer, 17 March 2016)
- Canola Meal feeding guide - Feed Industry Guide - 5th Edition (2015)
- Barley Grain - Feed Industry Guide for ruminants, poultry, swine, other livestock & aquaculture
- Validating the net energy value of wheat DDGS (Swine Innovation Porc, Vol. 1, No. 17, 2014)
- Canola co-products for feeding pigs (Agdex Number 440/68-2, January 2014)
- Co-products: A must for sustainable pork production (Pig Progress 29 (4), pp. 500-502)
- Reducing feed cost with canola meal (Swine Innovation Porc. Vol. 1, No. 6, 2012)
- Concentrating energy in young pig diets (Swine Innovation Porc Vol 1., No. 5, 2012)
- Importance of withdrawing feed before slaughter (Information sheet, 22 February 2012)
- Feeding Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) to pigs (Agdex Number 440/68-1, November 2011)
- Boar taint control in pork: A new alternative (Agdex Number 443/67-1, October 2010)
- Zero-tannin faba bean nutrient assessment and swine performance trials for Alberta (Information booklet, June 2004)
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