Over $6M announced to fund livestock and forage research in Saskatchewan

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Federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay and Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart today announced a $6.3 million commitment to 24 livestock and forage-related research projects and $2 million over two years to the Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence.

“Investing in research and innovation helps ensure that Saskatchewan remain a competitive and world-class agricultural research hub,” said Minister Stewart.  “Saskatchewan farmers and ranchers benefit from the knowledge and tools developed by this research.”

Supported research projects vary in scope from developing new vaccine strategies for pink-eye in cattle, to evaluating probiotic/prebiotic feed additives for honeybees.

Beef and Dairy (over $3M)

  • Improving understanding of the teat biome and leveraging the biome of health cows to develop new drugs to treat mastitis.
  • Enhance vacine adjuvants for nasal administration.
  • Evaluate precision cattle manure application.
  • Explore the microbiome of forage efficient and inefficient cows, and investigate physiological causes, genetic marker and phenotypic characteristics.
  • Develop new vaccine strategies for pink-eye.
  • Develop vaccines and tools for more effective management of bovine respiratory disease (BRD).
  • Explore the relationship between Mannheimia haemolytica and Mycoplasma bovis.
  • Evaluate the value in genomic selection programs for beef cattle.
  • Explore sulfate removal and water security.
  • Evaluate nanopore DNA sequencing as a diagnostic tool for BRD.
    Download further details on all of the 2018 ADF projects in forage and livestock.

Swine (over $1M)

  • Determine effect of long-term exposure to diets contaminated with mycotoxins on nutrient utilization, growth and health of grower-finisher pigs.
  • Develop a vaccine for swine dysentery.
  • Determine effectiveness of measures to reduce antibiotic use, monistor resistance, and develop best management practices.
  • Confirm efficacy of intrauterine vaccination of sows during artificial insemination.
  • Identify new vaccine targets for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRSV).
  • Control, characterize Alpha H1N2 Influenza A.

Download further details on all of the 2018 ADF projects in forage and livestock.

Poultry (over $400,000)

  • Evaluate electrostatic precipitation air cleaning in poultry houses, and and nanospray deactivation of microbes in swine barns.
  • Convert fusarium-infected wheat into a safe food source for poultry.
  • Describe the prevelance/distribution, antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella enterica.

Download further details on all of the 2018 ADF projects in forage and livestock.

Other Species (over $300,000)

  • Determine effects of direct-fed microbial additives in bison.
  • Evaluate probiotic/prebiotic feed additives in individuals, colony health, productivity, parasitism of honeybees.

Download further details on all of the 2018 ADF projects in forage and livestock.

Forages (over $1M)

  • Determine optimal seeding rate; effectiveness and impacts of insecticides in red clover seed production.
  • Increase quality and multi-harvest seed yield of meadow bromegrass.
  • Improve quality and yield of forage barley and oat varieties.
  • Evaluate mob grazing techniques in new forage varieties.
  • Secure operating funds for management and operations of Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence.

Download further details on all of the 2018 ADF projects in forage and livestock.

The funding is being provided through the Saskatchewan Agriculture Development Fund (ADF), with the aim to increase productivity and address issues relevant agriculture in the province, and follows an early January announcement of $7.7 million in funding for 30 crop-related research projects through the same fund. Another $6.25 million in operating funds will be provided by the federal and provincial governments through the ADF to the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at the University of Saskatchewan over five years. (Read more here)

Additional funds of over $180,000 for the forage and livestock research will be provided by the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, the Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission, SaskMilk and the Saskatchewan Forage Development Commission.

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