Built on Partnerships

USING TECHNOLOGY TO ADVANCE LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION

RESEARCH AREA

The TACLP allows innovators and businesses the opportunity to evaluate proprietary concepts, technologies and advances for the technological needs of the livestock sector.

The Technology Access Centre for Livestock Production (TACLP) at Olds College is an important resource for the livestock community. The facilities and assets of the TACLP — including a commercial cattle herd and 1,000-head capacity feedlot — can be utilized to demonstrate and advance the use of technology to improve production efficiency, animal health and welfare, and enhance environmental sustainability. Just a few highlights of projects from the past year demonstrate the commitment of the livestock research team to the goals of efficiency, environmental sustainability and animal welfare.

Alberta Innovates provided the funding for a study looking at continuous versus rotational grazing. Smart technologies were employed to monitor rangeland health assessments, animals, resources such as fence lines and watering systems, and the impact of crop cocktails on soil health and biodiversity. Looking at ways to reduce the impact of feedlot retention ponds has led to innovative solutions. Floating Island Technology for Water Remediation is a multi-year study that is seeing significant results. Using native wetland plants and floating island technology to treat feedlot runoff water could effectively improve water quality for irrigation or livestock consumption by removing excess nutrients, heavy metals, and other contaminants (as well as minimizing the presence of algae blooms). Allowing native wetland plants to do the work could save producers the high costs for chemicals and other technology that might otherwise be used to remediate feedlot run-off.

Animal health and welfare studies are plentiful at the TACLP. Last year, a pre-conditioning study in collaboration with the University of Calgary looked at the impacts of various weaning techniques to better prepare calves for the feedlot. The goal was to reduce the necessity for preventative treatments when they arrive at the feedlot, reducing antimicrobial use overall. Factors such as performance, growth, activity, behaviour, transition to bunk feeding and health checks were compared over 40 days. The Heifer Acclimation Project looked at reducing the stress of handling to improve reproduction rates. With partner Neilson Cattle Development, the TACLP worked on acclimating heifers to the process prior to the breeding season. The acclimated heifers were compared with a group that was not acclimated, and then reproductive performance, ease of handling and physiological indicators of stress (primarily cortisol levels) were evaluated. The preliminary results were promising — the heifers that received the acclimation training had lower cortisol levels and improved pregnancy rates compared to the non-acclimated group. Another collaboration with Neilson Cattle Development was a study investigating different calf weaning methods. The health of calves was closely monitored after nose flap, fenceline and abrupt weaning methods were employed. Technology was used to measure activity and other performance criteria in the weeks and months following weaning. Thanks to the funding support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the TACLP can provide access to every step in the production cycle — from seedstock to feedlot. The TACLP allows innovators and businesses the opportunity to evaluate proprietary concepts, technologies and advances for the technological needs of the livestock sector.

The facilities and assets of the TACLP can be utilized to demonstrate and advance the use of technology to improve production efficiency, animal health and welfare, and enhance environmental sustainability.

MORE DIGITAL AG INFORMATION IS BETTER — WHEN YOU KNOW HOW TO USE IT

RESEARCH AREA

Ag digitalization represents one of the greatest opportunities — and one of the largest challenges — for agriculture producers. Gathering the right amount of the right information, and then having a way to use it to enhance farming decisions, requires technology that producers can easily understand and manage. Olds College addressed this need by engaging Dr. Alex Melnitchouck, Chief Technology Officer, to develop a Digital Ag Strategy that provides guidance for the collection, integration and utilization of agricultural data for evidence-based decision making. This strategy also supports the research and work on the Smart Farm, along with industry partners and the College as a whole. When the Digital Ag program began three years ago, the College brought the most advanced digital technologies from around the world and applied them to the Smart Farm. These technologies continue to provide training for students, and are used for applied research and the development of new, next generation technologies. More information helps to understand fields better, and these tools enable the collection of millions of data points from individual fields on the Smart Farm. The HyperLayer Data Concept is being used to build an extensive look at the Smart Farm. It centers around compiling topographical data, detailed soil nutrient and moisture mapping, multispectral and hyperspectral imagery, yield data, and other layers of information to assist in machine learning for easy analysis, data extraction, and the building of next-generation analytical algorithms. The predictive algorithms that are developed with this information will be used on-farm to create significant environmental benefits — such as reduced fertilizer and input use, as well as water and other environmental benefits.

A number of projects are underway, and the team is now building their own platform to store and process data. They’re also building machine learning algorithms for analyzing soil organic matter. Partner organizations such as CAAIN, TELUS Agriculture, xarvio/BASF, FarmVu, VizworX and 4S Analytics all see the opportunities of a robust digital agriculture program. Dr. Melnitchouck can’t stress how critical these thousands of data points are for the development of machine learning and new technologies. “It’s important to realize how fundamental and foundational this concept is. When you build a house, you start with the basement. The HyperLayer Concept is the basement for the whole digital world at Olds College.”

DRAGONEYE SATELLITE FROM WYVERN

Olds College is excited to partner with Edmonton-based Wyvern, a space data company. The collaboration with Wyvern is an opportunity to see what cutting-edge satellite technology could mean for the next chapter in digital innovation for agriculture.

Wyvern’s DragonEye satellite will deliver high-resolution hyperspectral imagery from high-quality camera technology. Olds College is working with Wyvern and several other partners on this three-year project, and expect the data collected from the Smart Farm to provide solutions related to crop input efficiencies and improved yields.