By Adelle Larmour
Research at the Kapuskasing Federal Agricultural Experimental farm is paving the way for potential beef markets in Northern Ontario while trying to save cheese/dairy markets from multi-million dollar losses.
The Golden Beef experiment continues to evolve as a regional development project, designed to produce a leaner calf in 12 months, instead of 18 months. By feeding naturally enriched forages to the animals without implants or antibiotics, the intent is to change the fats in the muscle tissues into good fats, such as omega-3s and CLAs (conjugated lenoleic acids), explains Carole Lafrenniere, an Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada scientist working on silage microbiology at L’Universite du Quebec en Abitibi-Temiscamingue (UQAT).
“We are making progress,” she says, where some results were presented in April, 2006, at a New Liskeard conference, with more data to be presented to different organizations this fall. Additionally, Canadore College held contest recipes with the meat from the Golden Beef experiment to create recipes for meat not presently sold at butcher stores.
Lafrenniere says they also have the technology transfer network on farms in Quebec and are working with the New Liskeard Agricultural Research Station in order to transfer different research results to the farm level.
“The idea to develop the meat is to develop the economy,” Lafrenniere says. “You produce, you slaughter and then it could be packaged and sold.”
Pierre Therrien, foreman at the Kapuskasing farm, says there is a big pool of animals in northwestern Quebec where farmers want to establish a slaughter house so they can produce their beef, transform it in their area and then send it over.
“There’s more revenue out of a transformed animal than livestock,” Therrien says, “...so our work at the farm and other stations will contribute to that project to help this niche and develop it commercially.”
Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada research scientist Robert Berthiaume, who works in Lennoxville, says this year’s Golden Beef experiments are focused on producing a very lean, yet tender meat using several strategies:
1. leaving the calf on the mother for about 300 days, instead of the traditional 200 days; and
2. providing soybeans meal protein supplements, complimenting the cow’s naturally-enriched forage diet.
“The idea is to keep the calf on the mother to reduce its stress,” he explains. “Of course, we want to see how the calf will grow and see what effect it has on the meat composition because milk as a feed is quite different from forages, grains, or soybeans.”
Respectively, this affects milk production, calf growth, cow health and reproduction; all facets that are studied during the experiments’ trials.
“We are looking for a way to feed the cows to increase the milk production of the beef cattle so the calves would be bigger and produce better meat when they reach one year of age (for slaughter),” Berthiaume says.
To do this, they are complimenting the cow’s forage diet with soybean meal, a vegetable-based by-product of the soy oil industry, rich in “high-quality protein.”
Although they have used this in previous years with growing cattle, Berthiaume says this is the first time they are looking at it with cows.
“It hasn’t been used much because people thought it was too expensive,” he says. “But the few research results we’ve seen show a definite technical and economical benefit, considering the price of the product.”
Presently, they are working with 120 calves, which will be slaughtered in January 2007. Some meat is sent to taste panels (in Quebec) where they are detecting a difference in taste and an increase in tenderness. In the meantime, more applications for funding the Golden Beef experiment have been submitted.
Another of the farm’s continuing projects are the silo experiments. Workers at the farm are constructing “mini-silos” (100) to recreate similar silage (fermented forage-grasses or legumes) at the farm level. Lafrenniere says they are testing different silage additives (two bacteria and once acid) to repress clostridia development that can occur during the fermentation process. Clostridia produce spores that are passed into the milk, making it resistant to pasteurization. When cheese is then made, it develops an unpleasant smell, spoiling the product.
“It can represent a $10 million loss to cheese producers in Canada annually,” Lafrenniere says, explaining that the silos are one facet of the project. Berthiaume says they are also starting a program on sweet grass.
“Problems about the protein quality in the silage partly comes from the fact that there isn’t enough sugar present in the plants when we feed it to the animals,” he explains.
European research indicates naturally selected varieties of plants with more sugars have a better protein quality in the forage. He adds that animals eat more of the sweeter varieties because they detect the higher sugar levels.
The longer-term outlook is to develop new varieties within the species of locally-grown plants, despite the five to 10-year evolution necessary for it to develop naturally.
Berthiaume says harvesting can also maximize the sugar content in the plant. If harvested at sundown, the accumulated sugars made through photosynthesis during the day are present and therefore the plant will have more sugar at that time.
Whether it is finding optimal management tools for agriculture or developing new beef markets, the scientists and team at the Kapuskasing farm will continue to develop processes to enhance agricultural business throughout Canada.
www.res2.agr.ca/lennoxville/centre/kapuskasing_e
