RENO, Nev. – As Camiel Huisma scans his computer that is connected to an Arizona feedlot, a change in the onscreen bar graphs catches his attention.
“Now this is intriguing, right here,” he says as he jabs a finger at the screen.
In a pen of 340 Holstein steers, one weighs 900 pounds and another is tipping the scales at 1,600 lb. The intriguing part is that the little one is losing weight rather than gaining, even though it is eating, which tells Huisma something is amiss.
His computerized feed system will be able to alert the feedlot.
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That is just some of the information collected from the Canadian developed Grow Safe feed management system.
On display at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention in Reno, Nev., the system is gaining momentum with American feedlots and the research community, said company vice-president Alison Sunstrum.
The system measures livestock feed and water intake through electronic sensors in troughs connected to a wireless computer database. The cattle wear electronic ear tags with individual numbers.
In Canada the information is correlated to the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency tag number.
The information appears as bar charts and graphs, which provide a simple picture of what the animal has been doing.
Information can include a chart of each feed tub, and using different coloured bars can indicate which animals are feeding and when. It records their weight and how much feed they picked up with each mouthful.
It collects data every second of the day and feeds it into a computer, where it is monitored on a regular basis. If problems occur at the feedlot or bull test station, the operators can be informed promptly to see what is going wrong.
In one instance the system noticed that animals avoided one waterer but crowded around another. The trouble turned out to be a faulty float.
The system software and hardware are made in Alberta.
The Airdrie company started working with the ostrich industry in 1990. It could monitor intake and detect illness sooner than traditional means because sick birds ate and drank less often.
The company founders thought it would have broader agricultural applications to measure feed intake and weight gain in cattle after the ostrich industry failed.
“We found out that just like ostriches, there was a relationship between watering behaviour and sickness,” Sunstrum said.
They started working with beef cattle in 1992, but producers dismissed the idea because they were told there would never be a workable electronic identification system for livestock.
The concept remained at the research stage from 1993-99, during which time Alberta Agriculture researchers John Basarab and Don Milligan analyzed information collected on residual feed intake.
The company was ready to start marketing it in 2003 but the discovery of BSE disrupted the cattle economy. Feed efficiency was not a priority among producers, even though they saw its value.
“Canada could have had a giant leap,” Sunstrum said.
Researchers have known about residual feed intake and efficiency since the 1960s. Feed intake can be measured by hand, but it is labour intensive.
When the system was first introduced, computers were less powerful and could not collect the amount of information needed for good research. As well, communication systems relied on wobbly modems rather than high speed internet.
“We created a wireless platform for our technology and that spurred on a lot of interest,” Sunstrum said.
Today the system is installed at major universities and a small but growing number of private feedlots in Canada and the United States. Research has been conducted at Olds College, University of Alberta and Agriculture Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre, where geneticist Denny Crews developed an expected progeny difference for feed efficiency in 2005. It is moderately heritable.
This information could make a large difference in animal selection in the future. As feed costs escalate, Sunstrum said, producers could save money by finding animals that are more feed efficient and still gain well.
