The Government of Ontario has announced a $1.8-million investment in University of Guelph agri-food research to help find ways to enhance soil health and water quality.
The following is excerpted from an Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs news release. Read the entire release here: Ontario to Improve Crop Production by Fighting Plant Diseases.
Could switchgrass be an alternative to hay for dairy cattle to decrease competition between humans and cattle for land use and improve soil health?
That’s what University of Guelph researcher Abigail Carpenter from the department of animal biosciences wants to know.
A growing calf is a hungry calf, but feeding calves to appetite by hand is prohibitive from a labour point of view. Each calf would need to be fed roughly 10 times daily.
At the same time, there’s a growing emphasis on mimicking natural settings and accommodating animals’ natural behaviour on the farm. Consumers want products from animals that are humanely managed, so a balance must be reached between animals having quality life and economic and efficient production systems.
To maximize efficiency, profitability and sustainability, dairy producers need to find a solution to embryonic losses during pregnancy.
Professor Eduardo Ribeiro from the department of animal biosciences at the University of Guelph is researching causes of pregnancy losses in cattle to develop strategies that will ultimately improve pregnancy survival and reproductive efficiency in dairy herds. Ribeiro hopes to develop practical applications to help producers by focusing on biological problems of cattle at the cellular level.
Canadian scientists conducting a groundbreaking 3,000-dairy cattle study are developing genetic tools to improve feed efficiency and decrease methane emissions.
Milk can do more than build strong bones—it could potentially reduce the risk of disease in humans, with help from new technology developed at the University of Guelph.
High Immune Response (HIR) technology, developed by professor Bonnie Mallard, is a management and breeding tool created for producers to identify cows with inherently superior immunity and disease resistance.
Iodine is an essential nutrient for humans and animals, such as dairy cattle, but it can be toxic in high concentrations. University of Guelph (U of G) researchers have identified groundwater as the key source of iodine in cow’s milk from certain regions in Canada, and are exploring methods to decrease it.
A recent Dairy Farmers of Canada study found about five per cent of farms across the country produced milk that exceeded the margin of acceptable iodine levels.
Pregnant cows often experience two simultaneous phenomena that are neither good for them nor their soon-to-be-born calves – they reduce their feed intake right before calving, and simultaneously, they may experience chronic, low-grade, body-wide inflammation.
How does one affect the other, and which one comes first? Researchers at the U of G are investigating that, and trying to prevent metabolic inflammation that may contribute to health problems.