Dr. Philip Griebel’s study found vaccines administered at branding (age three to six weeks) and at weaning (age six to seven months) were more effective when given via nasal spray.

“Intranasal vaccination at branding led to persisting immunity until calves were six to seven months old. A second intranasal vaccination at weaning resulted in complete protection against BRD. Meanwhile, the intramuscular vaccination at weaning did not prevent the disease,” said Griebel.

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The panels are used to identify animal traits like feed efficiency and carcass quality. Eight partners are now using SNP technology for parentage on a regular basis, while three new partners are working towards that goal. This has helped not-for-profit Delta Genomics add more than 15,000 samples to its biobank. The data will be used to identify more traits of interest.

For more information, see deltagenomics.com.

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Currently, the dairy industry focuses on disease prevention because there is no reliable, cost-effective method to identify the subclinical carriers of Johne’s disease. University of Alberta Professors Dr. Stephane Evoy and Dr. Christine Szymanski hope to change that. They recently completed a research project that uses bacteriophages and bacteriophage tails to detect Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP), the bacteria that causes Johne’s disease.

According to Dr. Evoy, “Bacteriophages are unique viruses that are often used for bacterial typing. If they can identify the bacteria at an earlier stage of Johne’s disease, this could provide great relief to dairy producers.”

The test works when the bacteriophages’ receptor binding proteins (RBPs) found on their tails bind with receptors on the bacteria. Drs. Evoy and Szymanski have also successfully determined that bacteriophages and their recombinant binding proteins can detect bacteria such as E. coli, campylobacter, shigella and salmonella.

Using immobilized bacteriophages, Drs. Evoy and Szymanski discovered an RBP that successfully identified MAP. This opens the door for future research in this area, including the potential creation of a novel single diagnostic test for Johne’s disease. This test would allow for early detection and treatment of the disease. It is estimated that this treatment could save producers $200 per cow per year in a herd with 10 per cent of animals showing clinical signs of Johne’s.

Drs. Evoy and Szymanski would like to thank ALMA and Prairie Diagnostic Services for their support of this project.

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SAIT originally offered a 15-week meat-cutting program strictly focused on the retail meat industry. With the addition of the recently renovated butchery lab and the new charcuterie lab, SAIT extended the program to a year, appealing to both retail and culinary audiences.

The program is dual purpose, according to Tom Bornhorst, dean, school of hospitality and tourism, SAIT.

“The extended program is geared towards educating both meat cutters and chefs who will learn how to create value-added protein products. As well, they will learn to recognize food safety issues that arise from this type of meat processing,” said Bornhorst.

Bornhorst expects the program to more than double in capacity, with potentially 35 students enrolling in the September 2015 class.

The new program also has a consumer aspect. The campus sells packaged products, while the newly renovated butchery lab offers specialized cuts for customers preferring Alberta protein products.

Olds College sought to fill various industry knowledge gaps. These include the need for value-added products; improved product, processing and packaging methods; value chain development; and traceability technologies and applications.

With these key points in mind, Olds College developed a program that is geared towards training those in entry-level positions. Not only will this help fill industry’s labour void, but it will also increase knowledge and skills using updated equipment to enhance the value of a carcass.

Proper meat handling is essential to food safety. “Depending on the methods and equipment used for handling cuts of beef, the meat can be compromised or potentially enhanced,” said Brad McLeod, program co-ordinator at Olds College.

Olds College has “added value-added capacity for charcuterie, industrial canning and to develop new innovative products,” he said.

“This capacity allows us to lead our industry in nose-to-tail butchery. As well, our unique slaughter module provides gate-to-plate products raised on our farm, processed right on campus and sold in our new retail store. This allows our graduates to access jobs in all sectors of the meat industry.”

The Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency has partnered with SAIT and Olds College on their respective projects.

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The Beef Project, which has 3,200 members, is designed to identify needs for improved knowledge in the beef industry. It has multiple learning modules on topics ranging from animal husbandry to organic production and traceability.

There is also a “choose a project” module that allows members to understand the various programs they can participate in, in a 4-H beef club. These programs cater to a wide variety of 4-H experience, and include a novice beef project (raising a calf for show), carcass market beef project (raising a steer or heifer for slaughter), and a leadership project that gives senior members the opportunity to showcase what they’ve learned.

“We’ve already seen plenty of positive signs from the Beef Project,” said Bruce Banks, CEO of the 4-H Foundation of Alberta. “Members are giving us positive feedback, inspiring our leaders to adopt these tools in their clubs and also spread the word of the resources. That leads to a knowledgeable future generation of Alberta beef industry leaders.”

However, 4-H Beef Club members aren’t the only ones who are using these resources.

“The majority of our members is children of Alberta beef producers. They are showing the modules to their parents, who are also learning something,” said Banks.

To learn more about the Beef Project, including the e-learning modules, visit 4h.ab.ca/beef.

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Technologies such as the Computer Vision System’s BeefCam module have achieved up to 64 per cent accuracy in grading beef. However, processors are always looking for more convenient and cost-effective tools that match or improve upon that percentage. A University of Alberta research team led by Heather Bruce has prototypes of two devices that combine the reading of near infrared (NIR) and visible light properties.

The first is a digital scanner for detecting the amount of crude fat and meat colour. The team also created a light meter that detects intramuscular fat in raw beef steaks using visible or NIR light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Both prototypes are hand-held and wireless, and much smaller and manoeuvrable than current tools used in processing plants. Although most current technologies rely on visible light, the team found NIR was better at detecting fat on steaks and could predict intramuscular fat with 90 per cent accuracy. Another promising outcome was that NIR and visible light properties have accuracy similar to human graders.

“We started testing these tools on beef, but we believe that they could be used to grade pork, lamb, and other meats,” said Bruce. “We anticipate that, with the help of industry partners, our light meter and scanner can be refined and perfected for widespread commercial use.”

Their multi-year research was supported by the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency and Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions.

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Feed is one of the highest on-farm costs and when the price of barley, corn and wheat rises, producers often turn to using dried distillers grains (DDGs) in their rations. While this ethanol co-product lowers methane production in cattle by as much as 16 per cent, its high protein content results in more nitrogen emissions.

“Our research shows that when corn and wheat DDGs are included in diets for finishing cattle as an energy source, methane is reduced but there is a dramatic increase in nitrogen excretion in both urine and feces,” said Karen Beauchemin, a scientist in ruminant nutrition at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research Station.

DDGs in the diet also increase phosphorus content in manure, she added.

To counter the increased nitrogen excretion levels, Beauchemin supplemented the corn DDG-based diets with condensed tannins, which bind excess protein in the gastrointestinal tract.

“Adding 2.5 per cent condensed tannins to beef cattle fed finishing diets containing corn DDG reduced urinary urea nitrogen excretion and improved the retention of nitrogen in manure, with less potential for volatilization or run-off,” said Beauchemin.

This process shifted the route of nitrogen excretion from urine to feces, increasing the capture of excess nitrogen in manure. The nitrogen-containing manure, if spread properly, could help improve soil fertility, while lessening the beef sector’s environmental footprint.

However, at present, the cost savings from using DDGs are lost because of the cost of tannins, said Beauchemin, although new inexpensive sources of tannins are being explored by the team.

The research also found feeding corn DDG or fat-supplemented wheat DDG reduced the amount of methane produced in the animal’s rumen. Lower methane levels were a direct offshoot of the fat content of DDGs, as wheat DDG alone (without supplemental fat) did not change the methane emission levels. This is an important finding, as several ethanol plants are extracting the oil from corn DDG, thus reducing its fat content.

Because methane is a known greenhouse gas, its production is under constant scrutiny. Produced more in cattle on a high-forage diet, methane is released into the atmosphere during the normal cud-chewing process.

Thus the balancing act. Producers must remain watchful of grain costs and weigh the practicality of adding DDGs to feed against its effect on the environment.

“There are so many variables to consider when making feed decisions, and from Dr. Beauchemin’s research, we can see it’s much more than just feed costs,” said Susan Novak, executive director of strategic initiatives with the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency, which supported the research.

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This challenge could be solved, in part, with an improved carcass evaluation system, something Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researcher Manuel Juárez and his team is hoping to help create.

“Alberta’s current lamb market consists mostly of small- and medium-size flocks and a wide diversity of breeds,” said Juárez. “Producers are looking for more uniform and reliable ways of evaluating carcasses as a basis for reliable economic incentives for high-quality carcasses. We hope that this research will help build that capacity. The industry needs new tools to assist Alberta’s sheep producers, processors, and retailers to fill more of the growing demand for high-quality lamb meat, both domestically and internationally.”

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The researchers are using two technologies to evaluate variability in carcasses and meat quality — Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) and Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS). Both provide quick and accurate estimations of a carcass, and do not damage it.

The research team will also use that benchmark information to establish relationships between production factors, processing systems, and carcass quality parameters. DEXA can also estimate bone density to determine age, which can be an important parameter for high-value market definition of ‘lamb.’

“We know that this is just the beginning, but once carcass quality standards are established, lamb producers will have more information on their product that they can use for on-farm genetic selection and lamb feeding,” said Juárez. “Being able to select animals and manage them to produce quality lamb should help encourage this industry’s growth.”

The research is being supported by Alberta Lamb Producers, Sungold Specialty Meats, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA).

This project is another example of the lamb industry moving in the right direction, said ALMA president and CEO Gordon Cove.

“The lamb industry has shown a commitment to traceability, so establishing improved carcass assessment technologies is another step forward,” he said.

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Currently, the dairy industry relies on the expertise of dairy cow nutritionists who formulate diets for cows using an established protein model. Unfortunately, this model consistently underpredicts milk protein yield at low protein intake.

The Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA) and Alberta Milk have partnered with Dr. Lorraine Doepel, associate professor at the University of Calgary faculty of veterinary medicine, to revise the protein model. The aim is to reduce protein intake of dairy cows while maximizing milk protein yield through improved protein efficiency of use.

“Current feed formulation models use a fixed efficiency factor for converting dietary protein into milk protein, regardless of the amount of protein that the cow consumes,” said Doepel. “We have previously shown that efficiency decreases as the cow consumes more protein, and this means that we underestimate milk protein yield at low protein intake and overestimate yield at high intakes. Our long-term goal is to develop a dynamic model that utilizes variable efficiency factors.”

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Feed formulation programs consider energy and protein as separate entities, but their effects on milk protein yield are highly interrelated. The efficiency of protein capture in milk protein is stimulated by increases in energy intake, and milk and lactose yields are affected by protein supply. The mechanisms for these cross-responses to energy or protein supply are unknown and there is a need for a better understanding of the mechanisms driving milk protein synthesis.

Doepel’s research will help dairy nutritionists understand the interrelationships between dietary energy and protein. This new knowledge will be combined with results from other studies to update feed formulation models, allowing dairy nutritionists to formulate diets with lower protein content without compromising milk production.

“Feed is one of the top expenses for all livestock sectors, so when research finds a way to reduce feed costs without negatively affecting the animals, ALMA is on board,” said ALMA president and CEO Gordon Cove. “As well, increasing the knowledge base of dairy nutritionists will also help build capacity in the industry.”

For more information on this project, email Doepel at ldoepel@ucalgary.ca.

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Currently, Rock Ridge produces goat dairy products such as whole natural goat milk, chèvre (soft goat cheese) and feta. The first phase of the facility upgrade was achieving organic certification and licensing from Alberta Milk allowing Rock Ridge to process organic cow’s milk. The second phase of the project included significant modifications to the facility, effectively doubling the processing capacity. Rock Ridge also installed a large vat pasteurizer to increase their chèvre production and add a yogurt product line in the near future.

To market the new product lines, Rock Ridge integrated new labelling equipment to accommodate the different package sizes and shapes. With the expanded operations, Rock Ridge is putting new energy into branding and further product development.

Rock Ridge operates under five brands — Rock Ridge Dairy, Happy Days, Emma, Western Family and Oak Island — and is looking to add the organic cow’s milk to the flagship Rock Ridge Dairy brand. With this upgrade, Rock Ridge Dairy becomes a unique processor with the capability to process and market products created from goat’s or cow’s milk.

Cherylynn Bos, co-founder of Rock Ridge Dairy, said, “We are really excited to begin processing organic milk. It strengthens our business and helps us provide locally produced specialty products to Albertans.”

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