Lakeland to welcome visitors for Livestock Field Day 2022

On Aug. 25, 2022, Lakeland College’s applied research team will host the first Livestock Field Day since 2019. Visitors will have the opportunity to attend presentations at the Agriculture Technology Centre (ATC) as well as tour the campus fields and facilities where applied research team projects are taking place.

“It’s great to be able to welcome visitors onto our campus again,” says Dr. François Paradis, Lakeland’s director of applied research. “Applied research is a critical component of Lakeland College and a key part of the value proposition we offer our community. We are committed to conducting research aimed at improving the productivity, sustainability and profitability of agricultural producers. We are excited to open our farm, fields and facilities to visitors interested in seeing what we have been up to since 2019.”

Lakeland’s applied research team has grown substantially since the last livestock field day. With the launch of Canada’s first agriculture technology degree in 2020, the team has hired Dr. Yuri Montanholi, who is currently conducting several projects with ag technology. Shortly after, Lakeland welcomed Drs. Susan Markus and Brenda Ralston, former livestock researchers from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Economic Development to the team. These researchers join Dr. Obioha Durunna, who has been with applied research since 2018.

Lakeland livestock researchers have been working on numerous projects, including:

• Production and health impacts from seasonal feeding of garlic products to growing cattle
• Strengthening Lakeland College's feed efficiency and supplementation research in cattle and sheep
• Feed efficiency testing
• Evaluation of energy-use and water-use efficiency under the robot and parlour dairy systems
• Reducing beef production costs through winter swathgrazing via strategic construction of forage cocktail mixtures
• Precision cattle ranching for improved reproductive efficiencies
• Imaging analysis and drone applications for livestock sensing
• The use of meloxicam oral suspension in post-partum dairy cattle to increase milk production and reduce clinical disease
• Using multiomic approaches to identify beef cattle resilient to Bovine Respiratory Disease
• Comprehensive evaluation of the effect of extended-term delivery of local anesthetic on mitigating the pain caused by castration
• Scratching the surface: investigating the prevalence, nature, and potential causes of itchy cattle
• Development of a neonatal supplement to improve health in livestock.

Registration for Field Day begins at 8:30 a.m. at the ATC. Immediately following the Field Day, guests are invited to join researchers and staff at SPURS to share applied research ideas and enjoy local food and beverages. The Livestock Research team asks that anyone interested in attending uses the QR code to register prior to the event so that plans can be made accordingly. Guests can also register by contacting Andrea Hanson at andrea.hanson@lakelandcollege.ca.