Reading Time: 3 minutes The fear of bloat costs the livestock industry more than the condition ever does, says a well-known grazing consultant and researcher from Idaho. “I’ve seen the figures from the States, and something like two one-hundredths of one per cent of the total cattle herd dies each year from bloat,” Jim Gerrish told attendees at a […] Read more
Bloat no problem with the right genetics
Managing bloat comes down to the right genetics, right feed, and right mineral products
Winter cereals match herbicides in controlling wild oats
Producers might be ‘fairly shocked,’ but study finds winter cereals are as effective as herbicides in wild oats control
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winter cereals control wild oats just as well as herbicides do, suggests a study underway in Lacombe. “When we had two years of winter cereals — either running or with an early-cut silage in between — we had as good of wild oat control as when we went three years of alfalfa or canola-wheat-canola-wheat with […] Read more
Sainfoin story keeps getting better
Sainfoin is a marvel when it comes to eliminating bloat, but earlier varieties were outcompeted by alfalfa
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s been neglected for years, but sainfoin is poised to come into its own, with the first new variety that regrows quickly after cutting or grazing due to come onto the market in 2015. In rotational grazing trials at Lethbridge last year, sainfoin-alfalfa pastures produced more than 400 kilograms of beef per hectare with no […] Read more
Survival of the fittest key to developing new variety
Reading Time: < 1 minute Plant breeders usually look at huge numbers of plants when searching for particular traits. But Agriculture Canada research scientist Surya Acharya took a survival-of-the-fittest approach to finding a hardy and competitive sainfoin variety for alfalfa-sainfoin pastures. He transplanted plugs of seedlings into pure alfalfa stands, and used those that thrived to create the new Mountainview […] Read more
It takes more than sunshine to make high-quality and high-yielding hay
Cutting at the right time, giving stands a chance to recover, and investing in nutrients can make a big difference to the bottom line
Reading Time: 3 minutes Producers are becoming increasingly aware of how hay quality and productivity affect their bottom lines — whether they’re selling hay or feeding it to their livestock. The biggest factor in achieving these goals is the timing of cutting, says Barry Yaremcio, beef and forage specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. “For every week a […] Read more
Slim pickings for forage seed this growing season
Reading Time: < 1 minute Anyone thinking about growing forages this year better act sooner than later. Strong cattle values coupled with low grain and oilseed prices is shifting marginal acres back to forages, Kevin Shaw, sales and marketing representative at Pickseed, said at the recent Alberta Forage Industry Network annual general meeting. And there’s not an excess of forage seed around given that yields […] Read more
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