July Newsletter

Field Notes | ACER Consulting's July Newsletter

July 06, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

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July 2023

Welcome to the ACER newsletter! We're excited to bring you the latest insights, research, and news in the field of agriculture, agri-food science, and One Health. This month’s issue at a glance:

ACER attends ADSA annual meeting
That’s a wrap on the DFC webinar series!
Veterinary capacity in rural Ontario
Water use efficiency video series

Highlights & Industry Insights

That’s a wrap! Looking back on the DFC virtual research showcase series

With over 700 total attendees, these live events were a great success! Thank you to all those who attended and supported this series.

On June 7th, we hosted the 12th and final virtual research showcase event in the Showcasing Dairy Research Excellence in Canada webinar series. The series was hosted in collaboration with the Dairy Farmers of Canada to highlight dairy researchers and dairy research projects from across Canada. Between September 2022 and June 2023, these webinars gave the spotlight to nearly 40 researchers, students, and collaborators across 12 DFC funded research projects.

If you missed one or more of the VRS events, don’t worry! You can access the video recordings for all of the virtual research showcase events on the Dairy Research Cluster YouTube Channel at the link below!

Check out this new publication: A focus group study exploring dairy farmers' perspectives of cull cow management in Ontario, Canada

Introduction: Maintaining the welfare of cull dairy cows from the farm to slaughter is an ongoing challenge for the dairy industry. Recent research suggests that some cull dairy cows within the marketing system are in physical states that are below regulatory standards, and further research is required to determine why these unfit cows are found throughout the journey to abattoirs. Since dairy farms are the origin of these cows, decision making by dairy farmers has been identified as key to preventing cull cows that are considered unfit for transport from entering the marketing system. The objectives of this study were to understand dairy farmers’ perspectives on their cull dairy cow management practices, recommendations and requirements of regulations, management tools, and welfare issues.

Methods: Four focus groups with a total of 21 participants were each conducted virtually, video recorded, and transcribed verbatim, with dairy farmers from Ontario, Canada. A thematic analysis of focus group discussions was conducted utilizing deductive reasoning.

Results: There were three themes identified including deciding to cull or not, management of cows being culled, and knowledge and perceptions of cull cow regulations. When making culling decisions, farmers utilize multiple sources of information including personal experiences and values and external referents like veterinarians, family members and other farmers. The welfare of their cows was a high priority but one that was often weighed against the financial outcomes of culling decisions. Finally, most participants considered recent regulatory changes for the management of cows before shipment to be of little importance on their farms.

Discussion: In conclusion, the farmers from this study showed the diversity of considerations they make in culling decisions and the large contribution of animal productivity and economic factors. There was a general lack of knowledge of recent regulatory changes for the shipment of cull cows, and there is room for improving the uptake of new recommendations for culling only cows fit for transportation.

Read the full open access article

ACER attends the American Dairy Science Association Annual Meeting!

The ACER Consulting Team had the pleasure of attending this year’s American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) Annual Meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, from June 25-28. It was wonderful to discuss dairy research with industry stakeholders from all over the world, and Ottawa was an excellent host city!

Throughout the week, we enjoyed many talks from students and researchers on a variety of topics including:

Understanding how to mitigate heat stress and support dairy cattle welfare in our changing climate
Challenges and successes with extension and education programs
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the dairy industry and understanding the impact of dairy farming on methane emissions
Diving deeper into dairy calf health, welfare, and behaviour

Canadian dairy researchers had a great opportunity to represent their host country at the conference this year. The University of Guelph was well represented throughout the conference, with many students, researchers, and academics presenting from the Dairy At Guelph research group. In addition, research funded by the Dairy Farmers of Canada was showcased through an impressive range of posters and oral presentations on each day of the conference.

ACER’s own Julia Saraceni and Erin Wynands were proud to present research from two projects that our team has been working on over the last year, including a poster on global dairy quality assurance programs and an oral presentation on farmer stories and peer-learning as opportunities to improve dairy cattle welfare.

See ACER’s ADSA poster

See ACER’s presentation slides

New announcements from the Government of Ontario regarding strategies to increase veterinary capacity in rural and remote areas

As part of the Government of Ontario’s 2023 budget and Grow Ontario Strategy, recent announcements have been made regarding strategies to help strengthen the agri-food sector and address veterinary capacity challenges in rural Ontario. Key highlights from the news release include:

Consultations began in late 2022 to explore opportunities to modernize the Veterinarians Act. A summary of the proposed amendments can be viewed online on the regulatory registry.
The University of Guelph and Lakehead University are launching a collaborative DVM program in fall 2024. The program will focus on recruiting students from Indigenous, rural, and remote communities, and aims to increase the total number of graduating veterinarians in the province over the coming years.
A new Veterinary Incentive Program is being launched to encourage 100 recent graduates to practice large animal medicine in underserviced and northern communities.

Click here to read the full news release

Hear From an Expert: Dr. Jeff Wichtel

On veterinary capacity in rural Ontario and the role of OVC

Dr. Jeff Wichtel, Dean of the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), has long been engaged in conversations about how to support the veterinary profession and respond to needs when it comes to the veterinary workforce. And the issue of serving currently underserved populations is one that has seen increased engagement over the years.

In this podcast, ACER Director and Principal Consultant Steve Roche sits down with Dr. Wichtel to discuss his perspectives on veterinary access in rural areas, the underlying factors contributing to this issue, how OVC fits into the picture, and what potential solutions lie ahead.

Listen to the podcast

Resource Round-Up

Water use efficiency in the dairy industry

Water is an important resource, and a limited one too! We all have to do our part to ensure that we conserve resources and use them sustainably.

This video series is all about water use efficiency on different types of dairy farms - check them out and see what dairy farmers are doing when it comes to this important issue!