BC Cattlemen's Association has received funding from Growing Forward 2, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative, to provide a series of research extension events, as well as pilot and evaluate a number of technology transfer delivery mechanisms to ensure the information can be accessed by our producers across the province.
This page will provide you with information about the pilot program, links to technology-based resources developed from events throughout the project, and links to other organizations providing technology transfer and extension activities across the country. (check the left sidebar for links)
Event 1: "THE LONG GAME" @ BCCA'S 2015 Annual Education Day
Event 2: "MAXIMIZING YOUR FORAGE" Workshop and Field Tour at Bar K Ranch in Prince George
Event 3: "ENVIRONMENT FROM A TO Z" Keynote & environment-themed research extension mini sessions
Funding for BCCA's Technology Transfer Pilot Program has been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the BC Ministry of Agriculture through the Canada-BC Agri-Innovation Program under Growing Forward 2, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The program is delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC.
Webinar Technology Training Guide
"THE LONG GAME"
BCCA's Annual Education Day May 23, 2015
Forage Workshop & Field Tour Bar K Ranch, Prince George BC October 23, 2015 with:
Dr. Bart Lardner, Western Beef Development Centre
Dr. Alan Iwaasa, Semiarid Prairie Reserach Centre
Taylor Grafton, Bar K Ranch
Click here to watch webinar recording
Click below for playlist of videos
Additional Resources:
Dr. Bart Lardner:
Effect of Winter Feeding Systems on Soil Nutrients, Soil Distribution & Soil Compaction
Winter Feeding Beef Cows: Feed Waste & Feed Site Forage Production
Winter Feeding Beef Cows: Managing Manure Nutrients
PRESENTATION: Characterizing Dissolved Phosphorus in Snowmelt Runoff from Cattle Winter Bale Grazing Sites
...for more forage reserach, visit www.wbdc.sk.ca or follow Dr. Lardner on Twitter @DrBart_Beef
Sainfoin Factsheet
AC Saltlander Green Wheatgrass Factsheet
Grass/Legume Pasture Mixtures Factsheet
Ranchers & the Environment A to Z
"EVALUATING THE ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT OF BEEF PRODUCTION"
ARTICLE: Environmental Hoofprint of Beef Industry
FACTSHEET: producing beef with lower GHG emissions using fewer resources
NEWS RELEASE: New research clarifies beef's true environmental footprint
PAPER: GHG of CDN Beef Production 1981-2011
PAPER: Livestock and GHG_the importance of getting the numbers right
VIDEO: Tim McAllister keynote - Fort St John February 2, 2016
"USING COWS TO MANAGE INVASIVE PLANTS"
PAPER: Cows grazing weeds reduces costs and increases profits
PAPER: Teach cows to eat weeds: Science, Steps & Reasons
PRESENTATION: Cattle Managing Weeds
VIDEO: Cows eating Canada Thistle
VIDEO: Grazing Thistle in Pasture
VIDEO: Jodi Kendrew Interview
VIDEO: Sheep grazing weeds: Tess Davidson
"LIVESTOCK PROTECTION PROGRAM"
Kevin Boon, General Manager BC Cattlemen's Association
PRESENTATION_Livestock Protection Plan Overview.pdf
BMP Guide
Cattle Best Management Practices: a Field Guide for Ranchers Guide
Self-Verification & Compensation Form
Dr. Mark Boyce
Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta
PAPER: Seasonal changes in wolf diet composition in a livestock grazing landscape
PAPER: Mad Cow Policy & Management of Grizzly Bear Incidents
"MAKING IT WORK: ECOLOGICAL GOODS & SERVICES PROGRAMS"
Karl Morgenstern, Eugene, OR Water & Electric Board
David Zehnder, Coordinator Ecological Services Initiative
POSTER: Watershed Protection
BACKGROUNDER: Ecological Services Initiative
"PYRIC HERBIVORY: PATCH BURN GRAZING SYSTEMS"
FACTSHEET: Burn Plan for Prescribed Burning
FACTSHEET: Burn Tracker
FACTSHEET: Eastern RedCedar Control & Management
FACTSHEET: Fire Effects in Native Plant Communities
FACTSHEET: Fire Prescriptions
FACTSHEET: Prescribed Burn Associations
FACTSHEET: Stocking Rate Determination
PAPER: Burning in the Growing Season
PAPER: Integrating Fire and Grazing
PAPER: Livestock Productivity
PAPER: Patchburn Grazing as a Livestock Management Alternative
PAPER: Smoke Management for Prescribed Burning
PAPER: Tallgrass Prairie Vegetation Response
PAPER: Ungulate Preference for Burned Patches
PRESENTATION: Integrated Fire & Grazing in Grasslands
PRESENTATION: Using Prescribed Fire in Oklahoma
For more beef industry research and information, visit the Beef Cattle Research Council...
www.beefresearch.ca
Click here to subscribe to BCRC's blog.
THE PROJECT
RESEARCH EXTENSION THEMES
Technology Transfer, or research extension, has been identified as a major gap in the agriculture industry in British Columbia
This project will:
DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE AND INNOVATIVE DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR BEEF INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER THAT WILL:
Benefits to the BC Beef Cattle Industry include:
Through an advisory committee and producer feedback, a number of research priority areas were identified and ranked to focus the extension events on, including:
BCCA is utilizing a number of its available communication tools to keep our producers information about the project, including our website and bi-weekly newsletter, the Beef in BC magazine, social media, as well as through our local and regional associations.
Click on the links below to read some of the articles.
Technology Transfer Pilot Project Underway
BCCA launches Technology Transfer Program: Helping Producer Adopt Innovation on the Ranch
Education Day Delivers Optimism
Event #1: BCCA's 2015 Annual Education Day
In May, we held an exciting, engaging Education Day event in conjunction with the AGM in Merritt hosted by the Nicola Stockbreeders Association. This event was also the kick-off to BCCA's Technology Transfer Pilot program where we are combining traditional producer education (extension) events with evaluating "technology transfer" - utilizing technology to get these events out to a wider audience. The theme of the event was "THE LONG GAME", looking forward to the next 10, 20 and 30 years of the beef industry in B.C and Canada.
Click on video clips below to see each individual segment of the event... and check out our BCcattle YouTube channel. To select which video you'd like to play, click on the list icon in the top left corner, or click PLAY ALL in the middle of the video screen.
Panelists included an inspirational keynote from Bruce Vincent, a logger from Libby, Montana and four beef industry experts who all touched on various topics related to the future of the beef industry in B.C. and beyond and what we as producers, need to do to embrace innovation and changes to contribute to a sustainable, successful industry for many years to come. Click here for speaker biographies. Industry experts included:
Dr. Murray Jelinski, DVM - Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan. Dr Jelinki's talk focused on demongraphics of the beef industry, and how to develop successful succession plans to maintain growth in the industry.
Dr. Reynold Bergen, Science Director - Beef Cattle Research Council, who talked about research required, and the balance between consumer preference and industry sustainability.
Cherie Copithorne-Barnes, Chair of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and owner of CL Ranches in Cochrane AB. Cherie talked about defining "sustainability" for the beef industry, and how retailers and other industry stakeholders are joining the conversation.
Brett Stuart, CEO Global AgriTrends talked about the global beef market, and the opportunities that the B.C. and Canadian beef industries can tap into over the next 10, 20 and 30 years.
Increasing forage production and winter grazing strategies were the topics of the latest event organized by BCCA’s Technology Transfer Pilot Program, funded byGrowing Forward 2, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The event, which drew over 40 ranchers to Bar K Ranch northwest of Prince George on a snowy Friday in late October, was the second of three in-person events planned by BCCA’s Technology Transfer Pilot Program.As part of the program, producers from across the province were also able to participate in a webinar on the same topic in late November.
The first part of the event was a classroom session. Dr. Lardner spoke about a number of research projects conducted at the Western Beef Development Centre that examined and tested extended grazing, winter feeding strategies, bale and swath grazing techniques, and economics of grazing management strategies. As he shared the results of the research, he also talked about how the different strategies can be implemented on individual ranch operations.
Taylor Grafton provided a producer perspective on swath grazing, bale grazing and feeding corn. He shared the ranch’s experience with implementing some of the strategies at the Bar K Ranch over the last eight years and lessons they have learned. Grafton also spoke about his thesis research which involved an animal behaviour study evaluating the foraging activity of beef cattle that he undertook as part of his Masters’ of Wildlife Sciences degree through Texas A&M University.
New forage varieties was the focus of Dr. Alan Iwaasa’s presentation. He highlighted recent research on the non-bloating legume (sainfoin) and presented some alternative forages to be considered by producers in BC, like AC-Yellowhead alfalfa. Many of the varieties he discussed had been tested for suitability in the semiarid zones of Saskatchewan and need to be tried in BC. He noted a number of forages of interest that are currently being researched.
Following the field day, BCCA asked Dr. Lardner and Taylor Grafton to participate in a webinar to help facilitate getting this valuable production research and information out to producers from a wider audience across the province and beyond. Over 95 people registered for the webinar, and 47 people tuned in live on Thursday, November 26. Attendees heard and watched presentations from the comfort of their own homes on bale grazing and swath grazing techniques for extending the grazing season, and a great Q&A session ended the webinar with a wide variety of questions about practical advice for implementing some of these techniques in a variety of soil types and climates.
For people who weren't able to attend the webinar, or who didn't register beforehand, a recording is available for viewing here.
BCCA presented our final event of this pilot project on february 2 in Fort St John, focusing on the environment. It was a great turnout with 100 people in attendance.
The event featured a keynote address from Chief Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Researcher Dr. Tim McAllister, who presented new research done under the Beef Science Cluster via Beef Cattle Research Council evaluating the true environmental footprint of beef production in Canada.
See below for a few links related to the research:
News Release: Evaluating the True Environmental Footprint of Canadian Beef Production
Fact Sheet: Producing beef with lower greenhouse gas emissions & fewer resources
Following the keynote address, we broke into small groups for concurrent short research extension sessions on a variety of environment-themed topics on a rotational basis. Participants left with a USB flash drive containing resources, contact information and more from each presenter to provide insight into a variety of things that can be implemented on their home ranches to improve production practices and ranch operations. Resources from our previous events were also included on this USB drive. These will be made available to local & regional associations and members without access to internet to access the resources online. Topics included:
* see links on left sidebar for online access to resources.
Click here for detailed information on topics and presenters.