Meristem: Beef Science

Canada's beef industry stands to gain well over $200 million annually in feed savings by adopting technology to select animals for "net feed efficiency," says a leading beef scientist with over 25 years experience in beef cattle production and management.

"In all my years as in the beef industry, I have never seen a trait come along with higher potential than net feed efficiency," says Dr. John Basarab of Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (AAFRD).

"If we can get the technology broadly adopted to measure this trait and use that as a basis to select animals, we'll be looking at dramatic gains in feed savings for the feedlot industry, the cow-calf industry and the breeding industry. I would argue, and many of my colleagues would agree, this is the greatest opportunity we have at the production level for increasing the profitability of beef production over the next 10, 20 and 30 years."

Basarab discusses progress and potential for the trait in a new "Perspective on Beef Science" article on the Meristem Land and Science Web site, www.meristem.com. Land and Science is a service featuring information on the sustainability of agriculture, food production and the environment. It is presented by Meristem Information Resources Ltd., in co-operation with partners in agriculture, food, environment and life sciences.

Net feed efficiency, also known as residual feed intake, is a relatively new trait, says Basarab. But it's rapidly gaining recognition internationally among researchers, private industry and innovative producers.

Australia was the first to develop commercial technology for measuring individual animal feed intake in the mid-90s – a key measure needed as part of the calculation for net feed efficiency. But this technology was prohibitively costly to produce and operate.

Following a trip to Australia to investigate this development, Basarab and colleagues Dr. Bob Kemp and Dr. Warren Snelling approached Alberta-based GrowSafe Systems Ltd. about developing a less costly and more efficient model.

The result was a new standard in feed intake measurement equipment that could be produced at one-tenth of the cost of the original Australian model, and operated with less than one-fifth the labour.

The researchers also established a proof of concept for net feed efficiency as a valuable measurement tool, in a series of studies funded in part by the Canada Alberta Beef Industry Development Fund (CABIDF).

Fast forward to 2006, and the technology and approach have made great strides in commercial adoption. "More people are testing commercial bulls, and those bulls are going into industry and in many cases being sold at a higher price," says Basarab.

"If we are to take advantage of net feed efficiency, one of the priorities for the beef industry over the next three to five years will be to identify the best bulls that have the trait," he notes. "Right now in Alberta, the approximately five percent of industry that represents the leading innovators is taking the lead, and we'd like see use of the technology gradually broaden throughout the industry."

Meristem "Perspective" articles and reports are an ongoing series designed to bring to light various important perspectives on issues critical to sustainable agricultural, food and environmental systems. Development of the net feed efficiency article was supported by CABIDF.

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'Net feed efficiency' holds great promise for Canada's beef industry