Beef Development Centre Field Day always a popular draw

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

The annual summer field day put on by the Western Beef Development Centre (WBDC) is coming up on June 23 at the centre’s Termuende Research Farm near Lanigan.

The field day offers a mixture of guest speakers, presentations, displays and tours of current beef and forage research projects and farm facilities.

Paul Jefferson, the Vice President of Operations with the WBDC, says the event is just the latest in a long line of outreach activities the centre has organized to bring people into its facility and tell them about the exciting research work going on there.

“I think the WBDC has had a field day for as long as it’s been around, and we’ve been around for 10 years now,” Jefferson said.

He indicated the centre is taking a different approach this year by moving the event from mid-week to a Saturday. “This will allow people – particularly some of the younger producers – who maybe work off the farm or have other commitments during the week to attend,” he stated.

“We’re trying to give as many people as possible an opportunity to hear about the research and the demonstrations going on here.”

A lot of information and activity is packed into the day, but Jefferson says the intent is to provide producers and others in the beef industry with an idea of the research that is currently taking place, as well as some of the interesting findings coming to light that might be useful in their operations.

“Our keynote speaker will be Dr. John MacKinnon, a professor of animal science at the University of Saskatchewan. He’s going to talk about the increasing supply of dry distillers grains from the emerging ethanol industry in Western Canada, and how we might be able to use it as a feed resource for the beef industry,” Jefferson stated.

Currently, dry distillers grains are used primarily in the dairy sector. WBDC is initiating a project using it as a feed supplement for beef cattle, particularly in conjunction with lower quality forages, to see how the protein benefits can be captured and how the animals respond.

Other initiatives that will be discussed include a time of calving study, where part of the WBDC’s herd was shifted to a June calving date from the traditional March/April timeframe; research on low-cost winter feeding systems; a collaborative pilot project with the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration using a biological digester to remove sulfate from well water; research on using forages in backgrounding and feeding beef cattle; and an analysis of statistics that show a declining yield on Saskatchewan hay fields over the past 25 to 30 years.

“These are all very practical issues facing beef producers and the industry as a whole, so we expect the field day will once again be a very popular draw,” Jefferson said.

But he notes that the duration of the field day isn’t spent in a chair. “Part of the attraction of this event is that we take people on buses out to some of the field sites so they can see the research activities actually going on in real time,” Jefferson stated. “They’ll be able to hear from the researchers involved and dialogue with them right on the tour.”

Lunch is provided during the field day, and the event wraps up with an optional barbeque steak supper. There is a small charge for both of these meals.

Jefferson says that anyone involved or interested in the beef industry will be able to find some benefit in the WBDC field day. “If you’re working in the cow-calf sector, if you’re in the feeding or backgrounding aspect of it, if you’re in the beef industry at all – you will definitely hear some interesting and useful information during the day.”

Registration for the event starts at 9:30 a.m. on June 23, and the program itself begins at 10:00 a.m.

For more information on the WBDC field day, visit the centre’s website at www.wbdc.sk.ca, or contact Brenda Freistadt at (306) 682-3139, extension 2.

For more information, contact:
Paul Jefferson, Vice President of Operations
Western Beef Development Centre
Phone: (306) 682-3139, ext. 272
e-mail: pjefferson.wbdc@pami.ca