On average, $0.67 of your $2.50 Canadian Beef Cattle Check-Off came to the BCRC in 2022/23. Most of these dollars support research projects and programs. But most of the BCRC staff hours are spent turning research results into producer resources. That involves collecting production information from across Canada, identifying opportunities (and barriers) to better profitability, mobilizing existing knowledge to help producers exploit those opportunities and supporting new research to tackle the barriers.
Producer surveys help us focus these efforts appropriately. In the past, various provincial governments, consultants, university researchers and regional producer groups designed their own unique production surveys. The BCRC and Canfax Research Services worked with these groups to knit the results of the different surveys together into a single Adoption Rates Report. This report provided a snapshot of a wide range of production practices that have been adopted by cow-calf operators in different parts of the country. This time, we worked with these groups to develop a single, shorter survey for all parts of the country. The Canadian Cow-Calf Survey is open now and we need your participation to get the most value out of it.
Here are two examples of how past Canadian Cow-Calf Production Surveys have helped informed our extension efforts.
The last survey found that 6.8% of heifers (5.2% of cows) in Western Canada and 7.5% of heifers (8.3% of cows) in Eastern Canada lost their calves before weaning. Half of those deaths happened during the first 24 hours after birth. The odds are even worse if you’re calving now. BCRC-funded research found that January- and February-born calves are more likely to die before weaning than spring-born calves. In any event, using proper resuscitation and colostrum management practices are essential to help these calves through those critical first 24 hours of life.
Knowing this, the BCRC worked with veterinarians, producers and extension experts (Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives) to develop simple, practical information resources to help producers increase the odds of calf survival. You’ll find them at BeefBesearch.ca/calf911.
Here’s a related example. January- and February-born calves are also at least twice as likely to require calving assistance than spring-born calves. Past surveys suggest that calving difficulty may be on the rise, from 16% of heifers and 4% of cows (2014) to 37% of heifers (21% of cows) in 2017. Calving difficulty has a genetic component, which is why calving ease should be one of the major considerations in bull buying decisions. But nutrition plays a big role, too. The risk of calving difficulty is higher when cows are thin or over-fat at calving. Not only are thin cows more likely to have difficulty at calving, they’ll take longer to recover from calving, be slower to return to estrus, rebreed later (or not rebreed at all) and wean a lighter calf next fall (BeefResearch.ca/bodyconditionscoring). Optimizing nutrition is key to avoiding these challenges.
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