Ontario Beef Research Centre – Elora

Ontario Beef Research Centre

The Ontario Beef Research Centre – Elora is a unique, state-of-the-art, 233,000-square foot research centre that is a world-class platform for discovery, learning and outreach. It is the result of a vibrant collaboration among the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), the University of Guelph and the Ontario beef industry. It enables research that drives innovation and supports the sustainability and prosperity of the beef sector in Ontario and Canada.

Screen shot of video where Dr. Angela Canovas is pipetting in a laboratory

Watch

See how the Ontario Beef Research Centre – Elora facilitates research and collaboration.

The Elora site of the Ontario Beef Research Centre features:

  • Two cow-calf barns, accommodating 288 mature cows and 120 replacement heifers, and including:
    • 48 group-housing pens for cow-calf pairs
    • 20 maternity and special needs pens
    • 20 group-housing pens for replacement heifers
  • One feedlot barn with 24 pens, accommodating 288 animals
  • Four animal care and handling facilities with five top-of-the-line hydraulic chutes
  • 280 digital feed intake monitoring systems and 16 creep feeders for calves
  • 121 hectares of managed pasture for rotational grazing
  • Four laboratory spaces, including a sample storage lab and a clean lab for genomics research
  • A meeting room and office space

Research areas and outcomes

Research at the Ontario Beef Research Centre in Elora leads to improved growth and efficiency and productive, healthy herds. Areas of research include animal health and welfare, feed, nutrition, genetics and genomics, management and technology, reproduction, behaviour and performance. See current research studies.

Tours

Please contact the research station outreach coordinator for more information:

Take a virtual tour of the Ontario Beef Research Centre - Elora

Pasture

Pasture

The site has access to 121 hectares of pasture across four plots. Typically, cows and replacement heifers spend from mid-May to mid-October on pasture unless they are required to stay indoors for research trials.

Cow-calf housing

Cow-calf housing

The facility consists of two identical state-of-the-art barns. The cow-calf housing section has 24 pens and can accommodate six cow-calf pairs each, for a capacity of up to 144 cows, or 288 across both barns.

handling chute

Handling area

Designed to follow recommended best-practices for cattle handling, the Handling Area is an integral part of this research facility.

Maternity area

Maternity area

The maternity section includes twenty maternity and special needs pens. Cows that have calved or those in need of bed rest are brought here and given one of these spacious enclosures.

Contact Us

Technical Foreman: Tysson Amidon
Ontario Beef Research Centre
tamidon@uoguelph.ca

Manager: Joe Parkinson
joe.parkinson@uoguelph.ca