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New University of Alberta research aims to genetically reduce methane emissions from beef cattle, while making that technology easier for producers to use.

In an innovative project led by RDAR (Results Driven Agriculture Research), pulse growers may have found a new market for their frost-damaged faba beans: feeding them to pigs. Frost-damaged faba beans, typically considered waste, are now being evaluated for their nutritional value in swine diets, potentially offering a cost-effective feed alternative for producers and an expanded market for pulse farmers.

Strydhorst is well-known in the cropping industry with over 20 years in research and agriculture. She holds a PhD from the University of Alberta and has previously held positions with Alberta Pulse Growers, Alberta Agriculture, Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions and most recently, her own consulting firm, Sheri’s Ag Consulting Inc. Strydhorst also farms with her family near Neerlandia, Alta.

Canola breeding has come a long way since Canadian researchers isolated and bred low erucic acid Brassica napus plants in the 1970s. Canadian canola growers have benefitted from the introduction of herbicide-resistant traits, as well as specialty oil, drought tolerance, season length and, of course, ever-increasing yield.

When producers go out to their cattle in late winter or early spring and see them itching, or with bald patches, their mind usually thinks lice infestation. Sometimes they run them through and give the cattle insecticide treatment, or have their veterinarian examine them.

At Livestock Gentec, researchers begin each project the same way — with a road trip. They head out of the city, gathering at farm gates and kitchen tables to ask Canadian livestock producers one question: “What keeps you up at night?”

As highlighted in the articles Looking Back and Here and Now, Alberta’s agriculture sector is constantly adapting and innovating to meet new challenges. By leveraging emerging technologies like genomics, crop and livestock producers have improved yield and disease resilience and have begun to tackle solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change. Alongside these technological advances are huge advances in information and big data.

Sabine Banniza’s accomplishments as a researcher are making waves as she envisions a country whose pea and lentil crops are resistant to root rot.

Many generations of flea beetles have been exposed to neonicotinoids in Western Canada over the last two decades.

A project to increase the use of data in cow-calf operation decision-making has brought together organizations and researchers from across the sector.