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Choose local for the sweetest strawberries, according to U of G researchers

It's the season for June-bearing strawberries, but "day-neutral" varieties produce fruit all year.

Several decades ago, researchers found a trait in wild strawberries that allowed them to flower and produce fruit all season. They bred this trait into commercial varieties, according to John Zandstra, professor in fruit and vegetable cropping systems at U of G's Ridgetown campus.

As a result, strawberries can now be grown in Canada year-round and there is no 'best" time to eat them.

Long-term Alliance investments support dairy calf welfare

Dr. Todd Duffield, chair of the Department of Population Medicine at U of G, has spent 20 years researching how to manage pain in young dairy calves, thanks in part to long-term funding from the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance (Alliance), a collaboration between the Ontario government and the University of Guelph. Much of his work has focused on the practice of disbudding, or the removal of horn buds on young calves.

New methane efficiency technology developed based in part on U of G study at the Ontario Dairy Research Centre

The first national genetic evaluation in the world to help select low-methane dairy cows is based on University of Guelph research, with funding from various organizations including the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, a collaboration between the Government of Ontario and the University of Guelph.

The technology is expected to help reduce farm greenhouse gas emissions without affecting milk production.

Dr. Tongzhe Li, new Arrell Family Chair at U of G, to focus on "people side" of agri-economics

The professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics within the Ontario Agricultural College brings together economics and human behaviour through projects ranging from farmer incentive programs to agri-food employee retention to vertical farming, Li said her work helps improve decision making by governments, non-governmental organizations and producer groups. 

Senators dig into soil at the grassroots level at the Ontario Crops Research Centre in Elora

Agriculture and Forestry Senate Committee goes completed a three-day fact-finding tour of farms, agriculture businesses, and Ontario's agri-food research centres, which are owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario and managed by the University of Guelph through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.

They said this tour provided insight into the value of research continuity, data sharing and extension.

A collage of photos from the April KTT events.

Alliance advances KTT in agri-food during April events

Two April events supported by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance brought together local and international experts in agricultural knowledge translation and transfer (KTT) to share ideas and best practices. 

Alliance provides foundation for U of G research and technological innovation

Blockchain—or any advanced analysis in the food system—first requires that a critical mass of food and production approaches be in place. 

The Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance provides a foundation for agri-food research and innovation that is unmatched elsewhere in the country.  

“Whether they recognize it or not, researchers at Guelph who are supported through the Alliance or other funding programs are creating data that will be populating our blockchain ledgers,” says Malcolm Campbell, vice-president (research) at U of G.

Cutlery developed with Alliance support will reduce plastic, CO2 emissions

Cutlery and stir sticks made from coffee waste material and biopolymers in a certified industrially compostable biocomposite resin recently created by researchers in U of G’s Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre (BDDC).

Longtime BDDC collaborator Competitive Green Technologies (CGTech) based in Leamington, Ont., licensed the formulation to make a compostable, commercially viable resin.  

Ontario investing $13.5 million in new poultry research centre in Elora

The new poultry research centre is a partnership between the Government of Ontario through the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (ARIO) and the poultry sector’s four regulatory boards (Chicken Farmers of Ontario, Egg Farmers of Ontario, Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission and the Turkey Farmers of Ontario) and the University of Guelph.

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