Provincial and federal governments fund 24 projects to help Sask. beef producers

Jan 25, 2018

Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Development Fund supports livestock and forage research

By Kate Ayers
Staff Writer
Farms.com

A joint government investment of $6.3 million will fund 24 livestock- and forage-related projects through Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Development Fund (ADF).

Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, minister of agriculture and agri-food, and Lyle Stewart, Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister, made the announcement yesterday, according to a Sask. government release.

The governments are also investing $2 million over two years to support research and operations at the Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence at the University of Saskatchewan.

“Investing in research and innovation helps ensure that Saskatchewan remains a competitive and world-class agricultural research hub,” Stewart said in the release.

“Saskatchewan farmers and ranchers benefit from the knowledge and tools developed by this research.”

ADF research is intended to increase the productivity of Sask. agriculture and to conduct projects that benefit farmers and ranchers.

The three projects being launched this year include:

Researching vaccine strategies to help prevent pink eye as well as to reduce the potential of antibiotic resistance
Integrating DNA paternity and genomic program information to allow beef farmers to make better breeding decisions
Studying the physiology behind forage-efficient beef cows and improving selection tools for the cow/calf industry

The Saskatchewan Cattleman’s Association, the Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission, SaskMilk, and the Saskatchewan Forage Development Commission also provided a total of $186,500 in funding for projects, according to the release.

“We are proud to invest in and support projects that will improve all areas of production,” Ryan Beierbach, Saskatchewan Cattleman’s Association chair, said in the release.

“The outcomes of these projects strengthen our producers and our beef industry overall.”

In July 2017, the federal, provincial and territorial ministers of ag selected the key elements of the Canadian Agricultural Partnership. This program, set to launch April 1, 2018, will replace Growing Forward 2.

More information on the full list of funded projects can be found here.

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”