A non-profit market development and research group run by players in Alberta’s crop industry has been tapped to manage an $8 million pot of funding to develop new and/or better livestock feeds.
The Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA) last week announced the Lacombe-based Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund (ACIDF) has been chosen to leverage $8 million in ALMA Livestock Feeding Initiative funds “to combat the largest production cost for Alberta’s livestock and feed industries.”
ALMA’s seed funds for this initiative were originally pledged last December by then-agriculture minister George Groeneveld. The money is to be put to use to “enable innovation in the feeding and livestock sector,” the agency said in a provincial government release Thursday.
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ALMA — the provincially-backed agency that directs funds toward the goals of the province’s Livestock and Meat Strategy (ALMS) — has laid out a number of goals for the Livestock Feeding Initiative, including:
- more efficient use of feed grains, through “processing advancements”;
- developing technologies to more accurately identify key attributes, such as protein and energy, in feed grains;
- developing equations that can more accurately estimate weight gain, thus allowing feeders and growers to better determine a feed crop’s value; and
- product development, through increased funding for feed-focused research in plant breeding.
“We are a good vehicle for dispersing and growing these funds as we already have a large portfolio of similar investments,” ACIDF executive director Doug Walkey said in the release.
Previous ACIDF projects have included investments of over $1.5 million in development of triticale varieties suitable both for feeding and for the biorefining sector, producing biofuels and other chemicals.
ALMA CEO Gordon Cove, in the same release, described the feed initiative as “a tremendous opportunity to transform the feed crop sector, with huge potential to positively affect Alberta livestock producers.”
“Adding the expertise of the crop industry to a significant strategic investment by (ALMA) is a bonus for both the livestock and feeding industries in our province,” Agriculture Minister Jack Hayden said.
