An artist’s rendering of the Dairy Innovation West facility being built in Blackfalds, Alta.

Western Milk Pool marks concentration plant progress

The plant will be in Alberta, but Manitoba sector says a rising tide lifts them too

It’s unlikely any Manitoba product will pass through the milk concentration plant being built in central Alberta through the efforts of the Western Milk Pool, but the pool’s chair still counts it a win for the sector. Henry Holtmann, who is both WMP chair and heads the board of the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba, said


Pre-weaned calves can be easily stressed in cold weather, which can affect their future health and productivity.

Taking the bite out of cold-weather livestock care

Strategies for keeping calves warm and healthy

Glacier FarmMedia – The youngest calves on the farm are the most sensitive to temperature changes and, in the case of a turn toward colder weather, producers can have problems managing morbidity, mortality and suboptimal growth rates, said Sarah Morrison. She is a research scientist with the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute in Chazy,

“When we started LPI, this formula [was] very simple to use and simple to interpret.” – Brian Van Doormal, Lactanet.

Lactanet embarks on LPI modernization process

Predictive production index has become cumbersome, complicated

Glacier FarmMedia – A long-standing tool for predicting the milk production performance of dairy cattle daughters will be “modernized” to make it more user-friendly and reflective of contemporary knowledge about feed efficiency. During Lactanet’s open industry session earlier this fall, chief services officer Brian Van Doormaal gave a presentation entitled “Modernizing LPI (Lifetime Performance Index)”


Elevated levels of mycotoxins in feed increases fungal growth and fermentation of plant proteins.

The effects of mycotoxin exposure in cattle

Dairy cattle are often affected by multiple mycotoxins when levels reach a damaging threshold in feed

Mycotoxin concern in cattle tends to focus on deoxynivalenol (DON) but there’s a realm of other dangerous mycotoxins that can have an effect. Why it matters: In dairy cows, too much mycotoxin exposure has serious impacts on feeding and gestation. In poultry and pigs, the effects can be fatal. Dr. Gustavo Scheunemann of Ohio State

A new enzyme-based feed additive shows promise for increasing feed efficiency.

New additive touted for feed efficiency, SNF control

Strong results seen in Mexico trial for biocatalyst

Glacier FarmMedia – Calgary-based feed additive maker CBS Bio Platforms is trumpeting the feed efficiency benefits of its new Optimax E enzyme-based biocatalyst, at the same time as the dairy industry is looking for tools to reach its stated goals on carbon neutrality. The product has also garnered interest for its potential impact on solids-not-fat


Opinion: Keep balance in research funding

Opinion: Keep balance in research funding

Many ingredients went into the mix that resulted in the extraordinary success of agriculture in feeding a growing population. There’s the ability of farmers to constantly learn and increase their management skills. There are also vast improvements in technology – mechanical, digital and biological – that have come from researchers in both private companies and

One project a new professor at the U of M’s Department of Animal Science worked on with Lactanet was to gather and examine dairy cattle data to determine which practices promote and which practices restrict milk production.

Bridging the gap for livestock data

Face of Ag: New professor says data science can provide significant value to animal science

A new professor at the University of Manitoba aims to turn data into dollars for Manitoba livestock producers. Gabriel Dallago has joined the Department of Animal Science as an assistant professor in digital livestock production. Dallago describes his research as being somewhere between animal and computer sciences. “What I do fits within that whole idea


Cows in loose housing on a Grunthal-area dairy farm.

Calf housing, stocking rate changes likely to affect Manitoba dairy farms

Producers, animal welfare groups praised a new NFACC dairy cattle code of conduct, though some drawbacks were noted

A phase-out of tie-stalls in dairy barns may have minimal impact on Manitoba farms, but other portions of a new code of practice may require farmers to make changes. “My own farm, I would experience very few changes here, but it ranges from farm to farm depending on the kind of facilities they have,” said

Cows on a Grunthal, Man. dairy farm. (Manitoba Co-operator photo by Geralyn Wichers)

Continuous tie-stall housing to be phased out in new dairy code of practice

Producer, animal welfare groups praise new code; some drawbacks were noted

New guidelines for dairy cattle care will improve animal welfare while also potentially increasing farm productivity, Dairy Farmers of Canada says. “I think that we’ve come to a very solid revised code,” David Wiens, DFC’s vice-president, said in an interview. The National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) on Thursday released its revised Code of Practice