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Feeding strategies can improve cattle production and reduce greenhouse gas
emissions
Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Apr. 25, 2005 |
Cattle producers in Eastern Canada attending a recent successful cow/calf
feeding workshop in Nova Scotia heard that using better feeding strategies
can improve cow-calf herd production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
More than 60 cattle producers from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince
Edward Island, attended the one-day, early-April workshop at the
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Experimental Farm, at Nappan, Nova
Scotia.
The workshop was organized with the cooperation of provincial governments,
AAFC, private consultants, the Eastern Canada Soil and Water Conservation
Centre (ECSWCC) and funded through the cattle sector of the federal
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program for Canadian Agriculture (GHGMP). The
GHGMP is administered by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA).
Along with a hands-on look at cattle facilities at the AAFC farm,
presentations during the day included: Climate Change – The need for
promoting sustainable farming practices, by Gordon Fairchild with the
ECSWCC; Impact of Johne’s Disease and BVD in the cattle herd, by Dr. John
Van Leeuwen of the Atlantic Veterinary College; Forage quality evaluation
with Mike Price, a New Brunswick forage specialist, and Les Halliday a
P.E.I. cattle specialist; Cattle cow body condition scoring, by Guy
LeBlanc, a New Brunswick cattle specialist, and Brian Trueman with AAFC;
Round bale value, by Sean Firth, a livestock specialist with Agrapoint
International; and Feeding options and strategies, with Les Halliday.
A summary of the talks by the eight cattle and crop specialists is being
posted on the Eastern Canada Soil and Water Conservation Centre website at
http://www.ccse-swcc.nb.ca/
. The proceedings will also be available in a CD format by contacting the
ECSWCC office.
The workshop had two core messages, says Gordon Fairchild, a soil
conservation specialist with ECSWCC.
“Improved feeding management strategies not only benefit livestock
production, but are also good for the environment,” he says. “The speakers
talked about how a properly balanced feeding strategy can improve feed
efficiency and cattle performance.
"Improved feed efficiency reduces the amount of methane produced in the
rumen and emitted by cattle for every pound of feed eaten," he says. The
emission of methane from the rumen represents a loss of energy from the
feed consumed; energy, some of which, could have gone towards the
production of meat and milk. There is a clear economic and environmental
benefit from adopting feeding management strategies designed to reduce
this energy loss by improving feed efficiency.”
The workshop’s second message was, “Improvements in forage production and
feed ration quality can also be achieved by producers through management,”
he says.
Mike Price advises producers to think about their basic farm resources.
What type of soil do they have to produce forages on? Are the forages
being used for pasture, hay and/or silage? How are forages being fed - as
hay, round bale silage, or tower or bunker silage?
“Keep it simple,” says Price. “The goal is to select species that are
strategically adapted to maximize harvestable quality and quantity in each
system. Legume species can play a valuable role here. A producer should
select a simple forage mixture containing three to five adapted species.
Species used in these mixtures will differ according to their intended
end-use, be it pasture, single-cut hay or silage.”
When it comes to hay and silage quality, what you see isn’t always what
you get, says a cattle management specialist with the Prince Edward Island
Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Aquaculture (PEIAFA).
“Visual appearance doesn’t always tell the story,” Dr. Les Halliday, a
specialist in cattle nutrition, told producers attending the workshop.
“Generally, if hay and silage look good and smell good, the quality should
be good, but not always,” says Halliday. “You can have good looking feed
that is low in protein, and you can have hay that looks poor but has
surprisingly good feed value. The bottom line is to base your feed ration
on a proper feed analysis,” he says. “Paying for a feed analysis is money
well spent.”
A feature article on feeding strategies and other GHGMP projects can be
found on the CCA website at www.cattle.ca
. Click on the Stewardship section and follow the links. The article is
also on the ECSWCC website. The GHGMP supports dozens of on-farm
demonstration and communications activities such as the feeding workshop,
all geared to increase producer awareness of management practices that
help reduce greenhouse gas emissions or increase carbon sequestration in
agricultural soils.
-30-
For more information contact:
Gordon Fairchild, soil specialist
ECSWCC
Grand Falls, NB
Phone: (506) 475-4040
Mike Price, crop specialist
NBDAFA
Fredericton, NB
Phone: (506) 453-3468
Pat Walker, Cattle Project Co-ordinator
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program for Canadian Agriculture
Calgary, AB
Phone: (403) 601-8991
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© Canadian Cattlemen's
Association, 2005 |
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© Canadian Cattlemen's
Association, 2005
CCA Calgary - #310, 6715 - 8th St. NE, Calgary, AB T2E 7H7, (403) 275-8558
Fax: (403) 274-5686
CCA Ottawa - #1403, 150 Metcalfe St., Ottawa, ON K2P 1P1, (613) 233-9375
Fax: (613) 233-2860 |
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