Livestock Innovation

LRIC in the news

Coming events

Ongoing until March 31, 2023: Showcasing Dairy Research Excellence in Canada Webinar Series by Dairy Farmers of Canada.

Register here

April 19, 2023: Getting Research into Practice event, Grandway in Elora

More details here

May 17, 2023: Poultry Industry Council Research Impact Day, Elora ON

Register here

Recordings from past LRIC events

Livestock and data use Horizon Series webinar with Martin Gooch and Karen Hand

Livestock and plastic use Horizon Series webinar with Dr. Erica Pensini

More to food than composition - comparing the A&W Beyond burger to real hamburger with Dr. Michael Rogers

Funding opportunities

Please visit LRIC's website for more information on upcoming and currently open funding opportunities, including: 

• Beef Researcher Mentorship Program
• Genomics Applications Partnership Program )
• Rapid Response for Business Development

Sector-specific innovation highlights

Poultry: Developing a homegrown vaccine for IBDV

A research team at the University of Saskatchewan is developing a Canadian vaccine for Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV) that will specifically target strains circulating in Canada. Current vaccines are manufactured in the United States for U.S. variants of the virus, making them largely ineffective in Canada. IBDV, which targets and destroys antibody-producing cells in chicken immune systems, is prevalent in over half the flocks in Saskatchewan alone.

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Swine: Standardized outbreak investigation tool launched

A professor at Iowa State University has led the development of a downloadable disease outbreak investigation tool for hog farmers and swine veterinarians. The Swine Health Information Centre intends to use submitted information to monitor disease trends and strengthen industry response. 

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Beef: Australia bringing portable DNA sequencing to the farm

Scientists at the University of Queensland are trialing a portable DNA sequencing system with beef producers that was first used to track the spread of COVID-19 . The technology is showing promise as a cost-effective and timely way to use genotyping right on the farm to identify important production traits. Currently farmers must send samples away for lab analysis. 

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Dairy: China experimenting with "super cows" to boost milk production

Chinese researchers have cloned three "super cows" able to produce 18 metric tons of milk a year and more than 100 tons of milk over their lifetimes. The technique they used is the same one used to create Dolly the sheep in the late 1990s, the world's first cloned animal. Driving the research is a desire to reduce China's dependence on imported dairy cattle.   

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Sheep: Sheep can benefit urban lawn landscapes, study says

Using sheep as lawnmowers at the University of California Davis is not just keeping grass cut and fertilized and improving the natural ecosystem. The 25 sheep that graze on various on-campus locations are also improving human mental health, a new study shows. Lead researcher Haven Kiers believes this could open up new opportunities to derive benefits out of landscape management. 

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Cross-sector innovation highlights

Climate change: Tyson supports carbon credit market for livestock

U.S. multinational Tyson Foods is investing into Athian, the world's first cloud-based carbon marketplace for the livestock industry. This will help fast-track the launch of a program that will give farmers economic incentives for on-farm sustainability practices. 

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Research: Livestock and forage projects funded in Saskatchewan

The University of Saskatchewan is receiving $5.2 million in research funding from Saskatchewan's Agriculture Development Fund. Funded projects range from using artificial intelligence to monitor the well-being of pigs and developing vaccines to control diseases such as foot rot in cattle, to controlling microbial diseases in bees and maximizing the use of wheat straw in the diet of beef cattle.

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Alternative protein: Minimally processed meat alternative in development

A Swedish start-up is looking for funding to scale up production of its minimally processed meat substitutes made from oats and mycelium. Millow is adding the fungal biomass to oats in a novel fermentation process. Alternative meat products have been sharply criticized for being to highly processed. 

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On the horizon

"Animal-free" dairy may be a misnomer

The chief marketing officer of Perfect Day, a startup producing dairy proteins by fermenting microbes, says calling their product "animal-free dairy" may not be the best descriptor. To consumers, it can imply the product is plant-based, when in fact, it isn't. This is part of the larger challenge of determining how to name, market and merchandise products made by microbes instead of livestock - like dairy proteins - that the industry is grappling with. 

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The hottest climate job you've never heard of

Technical service providers play a critical role in helping farmers adopt more sustainable practices, but almost no one knows who they are. They fill roles from boosting soil health and sequestering carbon to adding wildlife habitats - and in the United States, are often also the people needed to provide confirmation to climate programs that on-farm activities are implemented according to approved scientific and technical standards. Their jobs are only going to become more important, but there aren't enough people to meet job demands. 

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Thanks for reading. We'd love to hear your feedback about LRIC - both about what we're doing and what you think we should be doing! Please contact us at info@livestockresearch.ca with any questions or comments.