Producers and consumers benefit from research

The new Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence takes beef research all the way from the feedlot to the consumers’ plate.

The centre, located on 15 quarters of land southeast of Saskatoon at Clavet, was officially opened last fall.

It includes a 2,000 head cattle feeding operation, cattle research facility, a 350 head cow-calf research facility and forage research plots.

Dr. Terry Fonstad is a Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. He said the beneficiaries of this new facility are the two ends of the spectrum, livestock producers and consumers.

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“The consumers that are able to take protein that has been produced from grass that we can’t eat, that feeds us. The big outcomes of this thing are going to be better ways to produce livestock, better ways to turn those grasslands into human protein and feed the world and in better ways,” Fonstad said.

“Some of this is about the social license to produce food and as we move towards more and more people, now there’s over 98 per cent of people living in urban centres that lost a little contact of where their food comes from. People are more and more concerned about how food is raised. I think this works in collaboration with the producer and the consumer and brings the two together in a sustainable manner to produce meat.”

Fonstad said the complete cycle will be studied in collaboration between scientists at one site.

“I think this is a really huge opportunity for Canada and, actually, North America in the fact that this was built on sight. We’ll be able to monitor things from day one to see what some of the impacts and benefits are and then change those practices and actually be able to find out what impacts they make and just keep improving things for producers and consumers.” Fonstad said.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF