Animal Nutrition Conference of Canada 2024

Students are invited to learn more about the diverse career opportunities within the Canadian feed industry. Representatives from different segments of the Canadian feed industry will discuss their career experiences in a live panel discussion. Afterwards, students will engage in small group discussions where they can ask questions and have further conversations with the panelists.

Join us for an evening of networking and animated discussions with industry colleagues. Registration packages will also be available for collection.

Dr. Ermias Kebreab, University of California, Davis

Livestock production plays a vital role in ensuring global food security by providing essential nutrients. However, it also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, with the main sources being feed production, enteric emissions (related to digestion), manure storage and application, and the energy used for various farm activities. To substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions within these categories, various mitigation strategies can be implemented.
 
In feed production, adopting sustainable practices such as no-till farming, cover cropping, and improved nitrogen application methods can lead to significant emissions reductions. There are several options for reducing enteric methane emissions, including the use of inhibitors like 3NOP and bromoform-containing macroalgae, as well as rumen modifiers like tannins, nitrate, and certain essential oils.
 
Concerning manure management, employing anaerobic digesters and alternative manure treatment techniques can substantially reduce emissions. Additionally, implementing strategies like same-day incorporation of manure can help minimize nitrogen emissions into the air. Finally, transitioning to renewable energy sources for farm activities such as cooling, heating, and heavy machinery operation can further contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the livestock production sector.
 
While implementing all the mentioned strategies will result in a substantial reduction, it’s important to note that complete elimination of emissions may not be achievable. Therefore, the journey towards achieving net-zero emissions in livestock production is not only essential for mitigating the impact of this industry on the environment but also for ensuring a sustainable and resilient global food system.
 
Keywords: livestock, net-zero, greenhouse gases.

Dr. Neil Ferguson, Trouw Nutrition

Within the livestock industry, sustainability is a relatively new and emerging field driven by pressure from climate change, policy making, carbon tax and sustainable financial investing. However, the realities of implementing any meaningful improvements in sustainable pig production are challenging because of the many uncertainties around the assumptions and predictions of emissions, differences in global standard methodologies, constantly evolving new scientific insights and improved databases used within Life Cycle  Assessments (LCA). Nevertheless, there are still large opportunities to implement nutritional solutions and farm management practices that can significantly reduce a farm’s environmental footprint. To help facilitate these sustainability improvements at the pig farm level, a holistic digital twin approach is proposed that integrates  animal biology, stochasticity, feed formulation, and LCA to simulate the system interactions and predict the various environmental impact categories (carbon dioxide equivalents, acidification, eutrophication, water scarcity, land use, and non-renewable energy resource use).
 
Keywords: pig, sustainability, LCA, carbon footprint, model.

Dr. Carlyn Peterson, Selko USA

Dairy cattle, and agriculture in general, have been wrongly targeted as the scapegoat for the sustainability movement. In reality, the dairy sector has made more major improvements than any other industry. The objective of these proceedings is to highlight the application of sustainability strategies in the dairy industry, including improvements to all three pillars of sustainability: the society, environment, and economy. Dairy directly strengthens society through supplying a safe and nutritious product that benefits human health by providing protein, calcium, and B and D vitamins. The dairy industry has also created programs to educate and promote development of communities, both those involved with and removed from our dairies. Dairy bolsters the US economy by providing more than 3 million jobs and generating over $42 billion in direct wages (IDFA 2024). The US dairy herd is incredibly efficient; while having the fourth largest herd size, we have the second largest production globally. This enhanced efficiency translates to improved sustainability by producing more with less. In addition, dairy farmers are making direct improvements to their environmental impacts by implementing dietary ingredient changes, reduction in protein fed to animals, feeding low water-use feedstuffs, improving crop production, and implementing feed and manure additives. Dairy will advance the push for sustainability through their continued translation of theory to practice.       
 
Keywords: sustainability, dairy, environment, society, economy.

Dr. Terry Engle, Colorado State University

Interactions between trace minerals and beef cattle production are extremely complex. Many factors can affect an animal’s response to trace mineral supplementation such as the duration and concentration of trace mineral supplementation, physiological status of an animal, the absence or presence of dietary antagonists, environmental factors, breed differences, and stress. Furthermore, the role that trace minerals play in rumen microbial fermentation is not well understood. In vitro and in vivo data suggest that practical diets fed to ruminants without trace mineral supplementation can meet the microbial Cu and Zn requirements. Therefore, rumen solubility of supplemental Cu and Zn can impact rumen microbial fermentation characteristics. Earlier in vitro research has indicated that high soluble concentrations of Cu and Zn in the rumen can decrease fiber digestion. Recent in vivo experiments replacing sulfate trace minerals (STM) with OHCl trace minerals (HTM) that are relatively insoluble in the rumen environment, reported improved NDF digestibility in lactating dairy cows and beef steers fed either a grass hay diet or a corn silage-based diet. STM sources of Cu and Zn that are highly soluble in the rumen can reduce total VFA concentrations and can become more tightly bound to rumen solid digesta than HTM sources of Cu and Zn. Organic forms of Cu and Zn may also affect fiber digestibility differently than sulfate forms. Future research investigating the flow and passage rate of different trace mineral sources through the digestive tract and absorption efficiency of Cu and Zn from different TM sources is needed.
 
Keywords: Copper, zinc, source, binding, solubility.

Dr. Gavin Boerboom, Trouw Nutrition

Animal production faces serious challenges, having to feed a growing population while dealing with increased competition for land, climate change and having to take a more sustainable approach. Sustainable agriculture requires us to meet society’s present needs without compromising the ability for current, or future generations, to meet their needs. The effectiveness by which an animal is capable to transform feed biomass into animal products determines the amount of feed, as well as most emissions coming from animal production. The strategy applied for trace mineral feeding can play an important role here, as trace minerals are essential to ensure proper animal health and productivity. Their requirements however are not static, and depend on many different environmental and physiological factors, making it difficult to ensure sufficient minerals are fed. Feeding a higher quality source of trace minerals can ensure that animal requirements are more likely to be met, performance is guaranteed and feed/premix stability is improved. Feeding hydroxy trace minerals (Selko® IntelliBond®) can improve animal performance and bottom-line results. The minerals are covalently bonded and present in a defined crystalline structure, giving it lower reactivity in feeds while increasing availability to the animal. This leads to an improvement in animal growth and feed efficiency, allowing for more output with the same input. Most recently, an independently verified CO2eq value was completed, allowing for accurate assessment of total CO2eq values within complete feed. For dairy, IntelliBond has been independently verified to assist with the reduction of cow’s carbon footprint by improving productivity.

Keywords: Sustainability, minerals, IntelliBond, Optimin.

Aaron Hanson, GlobalData

On top of changing dietary patterns as the world grows richer, agricultural markets are being impacted by a new wave of biofuels mandates and targets aimed at mitigating climate change.  Although cereals are part of this, the main expected impact will be on demand for vegetable oils.  Due to regulations constraining the ability of palm to meet the new vegetable oil demand, the sector is likely to fall back on the oilseeds, especially soybeans.  The large volumes of protein meal generated as by-products of this oil demand will in turn alter feed ration practices in the livestock industry.
 
Keywords: Biofuels, animal feed, oilseeds.

Dr. Jim House, University of Manitoba

The provision of adequate quantities of protein and amino acids in the diets of both livestock and humans is critical for optimal growth, health and performance.  As such, the quality of dietary proteins is an important consideration. Two key components that define the nutritional quality of dietary proteins, including plant-based proteins, are the respective amino acid profiles and the extent to which the protein is digested, absorbed and utilized to meet the needs of the consumer. For plant proteins in particular, numerous factors are known to influence both parameters. The amino acid composition of food and feed ingredients is influenced by the crop and varietal differences within a crop (genetic effect). Furthermore, agronomic and environmental factors, including soil type and fertility, heat units, and moisture can influence the amino acid content of important protein crops. Finally, processing of the crops, including milling strategies, thermal and non-thermal processing steps can influence the content of amino acids. The same factors can also influence the overall digestibility/availability of the amino acids. Novel strategies, including the use of new spectroscopic methods, are available to assess the impact of the above factors on the amino acid content of crops. The latter can replace expensive and time-consuming traditional wet chemistry methods for amino acid analysis and offer new tools for plant breeders and nutritionists to assess the quality of dietary proteins.  Additionally, new in vitro methods have been standardized to assess protein and amino acid digestibility and provide additional tools for nutritionists for protein characterization. The availability of these tools will assist in ensuring that we can continue to provide high quality protein sources for both livestock and human diets.

Keywords: protein quality, amino acids, digestibility, variability.

Dr. Mike von Massow, University of Guelph

Recent years have seen significant changes in the food consumer landscape with supply chain disruptions, generational inflation, and significant new technologies among other things. This presentation will provide perspectives on the changes in consumer demand brought on by these factors and what they mean for animal agriculture. We continue to evaluate supply chain resilience and the implications for a consistent food supply. While trust in agricultural production is strong (particularly for producers), it is clear that the public does not have a detailed understanding of how their food is produced. This gap creates risk which provides an imperative for engagement. There has been some short-term adjustment in consumer preferences driven largely by higher prices, but these are not expected to be permanent. Technologies such as gene-editing and cellular agriculture also have the potential to disrupt the market. Despite all of these factors, animal agriculture will continue to be a key factor in providing protein requirements and food security in Canada and across the world.
 
Keywords: food, food prices, technology, protein, consumers.

Dr. Maurice Doyon, Université Laval

The presentation focuses on traditional animal protein and its substitutes, from a consumer point of view. After an overview of the motivations behind the choice of proteins, we will assess the situation before describing what I call the protein war. This conference addresses these trends in the perspective of initiating a reflection on the issue.

Keywords: Proteins, animal, plant, laboratory protein, molecular agriculture.

Enjoy an evening of food, drink and networking. Visit the Industry Partner Showcase and Graduate Student Poster Exhibition.

Dr. Jack Britt, North Carolina State University

The average dairy herd size in the USA is 330 cows, about 3-times the size of the average Canadian dairy herd. In the USA and Canada, about two-thirds of milk sold from dairy farms is processed into yogurt, cheeses, and ice cream, and this milk may be priced differently than fluid milk. Dairy consumption per capita is increasing at about 1-2 kg annually. Crossbred calves (dairy beef) have become a significant source of revenue for dairy farmers. Land available for larger dairy farms is in the western region of both countries, and large farms have been established in those areas. Changes in manure management have focused on limiting methane, which may be captured as an energy source. Cow-specific technologies have boosted robotically assisted management of cows. Herd sizes will continue to grow within the limit of land masses available in their location. Increased milk consumption and increased population of Hispanics will drive milk uptake in the USA.

Dr. Emily Burton, Nottingham Trent University

Surviving sustainably on Earth is one of a set of challenges that transcend national boundaries and are the primary focus of the United Nations (UN). The UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) clearly exist to find balance between economic, social, and environmental needs, both now and in the future. Ensuring we operate within the planetary boundaries estimated necessary for human survival is creating opportunities to change the way we think and work but with this opportunity comes both risk and reward. Our challenge, and indeed our responsibility as nutritionists is to identify how to ensure animal nutrition brings sustainable development for all, both locally in Canada and globally. This requires us to rapidly change the way we think and work in order to capitalise on the emerging opportunities in both production and processing of feed and animal proteins.
 
Feed production sometimes takes a narrow approach to sustainability, with a strong focus on use of finite resources and the environmental impact of resulting manure. However, leading economic bodies (including the World Bank) increasingly recognise the reliance of economic and societal stability on environmental stability. It is therefore important that the feed sector begins to recognise the increasing global focus on the well-being of the environment and valuing it as natural capital.
The concept of responsible innovation, where industry and academia give society opportunity to scrutinise the assumptions, values and visions that drive science, has been evolving in the EU for some time. Responsible research frameworks offer nutritionists the foundation for a new responsible innovation ethos where regulators are increasingly willing to rapidly adapt their regulatory systems to prevent delaying innovation that is beneficial to society.

Keywords: UN SDGs, responsible innovation, sustainable food production.

Dr. Kim Ominski, University of Manitoba

Protein demand over the next 30-years is projected to increase to satisfy the needs of the growing global population. Improved production efficiency, including average daily gain and feed efficiency, is one avenue to do so. Despite advances in production efficiency via genetic selection, improved management systems, and use of productivity-enhancing technologies (PET’s), there has been a shift in demand toward “free-from” products (i.e., free from growth hormones or antibiotics) in domestic and global markets. However, consumers are largely unaware of the implications of eliminating PET’s from the production system on cost of production, retail price of beef, environmental sustainability and future food security. Using PET’s as an example, this presentation will examine the implications of consumer food choices on productivity, economic viability and environmental sustainability including greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions, as well as land and water use.  Further, as stakeholders in the livestock sector, we are eager to share our knowledge with consumers but capturing their attention is an ever-allusive challenge. Therefore, we will explore opportunities for engagement between industry stakeholders and consumers in Canada to ensure optimal use of natural resources, nutritional adequacy, improved human health, and the environmental sustainability of Canadian diets. However, as we support consumers in their quest to make informed choices regarding diet, we must be mindful that there is room in the marketplace for a variety of food production systems.
 
Keywords: beef cattle, productivity enhancing technologies, environmental sustainability

Dr. Jaap Van Milgen, French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE)

Individuals of the same species may look the same, but they are genetically somewhat different. Different species may look different, but share many common features. The genetic difference between a chicken and a pig is roughly 25%, which may seem considerable. However, it often reflects genetic differences to ensure that the same function can be realized in a (somewhat) different way. As animal nutritionists, we often focus on the differences between species and ignore (or: take for granted) the commonalities. For example, arginine is an essential amino acid for birds but not for mammals because birds lack an enzyme to enter carbamoyl-phosphate into the urea cycle. However, birds possess the other steps of the urea cycle allowing them to synthesize arginine from citrulline, and to catabolize arginine to proline or glutamate. This single missing step causes birds to excess nitrogen via the uric acid cycle rather than via the urea cycle, as in mammals. Mammals also use the uric acid cycle to metabolize purines (e.g., adenine), which is a building block of DNA and the core of ATP. Both species thus use (parts of) both cycles. The cost of synthesizing and excreting excess nitrogen is approximately 40.3 kJ/g N for urea and 60.7 kJ/g N for uric acid. In both cases, 56% is retained in excretion product and 44% is lost as heat with implications for the protein value in energy systems. A better understanding of the metabolic commonalities between species may help us in appreciating the practical differences.
 
Keywords: poultry, pigs, metabolism, nitrogen, energy.

Dr. Dan Columbus, University of Saskatchewan

The issues facing pork producers and swine nutritionists moving into the future are similar to what they have been for decades, a need to increase productivity while meeting increasing demands from legislation and consumers in order to ensure the economic, environmental, and social sustainability. While the challenges are the same, the methods with which we tackle these issue are evolving, and nutritional sciences will necessarily include additional aspects, such as physiology, metabolism, and microbiome, among others, in order to advance the field.  There will also be a shift in focus to consider not only the impact of nutrition on growth, but on animal health and welfare as well, and to incorporate the impact of feed decisions on the environmental impact, and specifically the carbon footprint, of pork production. Our understanding of the complex interactions of the competing and symbiotic relationships between feedstuffs and animals as well as the incorporation of advancing technology, such as improved growth models and precision feeding, will be crucial for the advancement of the industry.

Dr. Mary Beth Hall, USDA

An essential element of sustainability is the efficient use of resources. Optimally extracting nutrients from the diet to meet a cow’s nutrient requirements rather than producing manure falls into this category. Rumen microbes can convert fiber that is indigestible by mammals to energy and protein usable by the cow in the forms of volatile fatty acids and microbial cells. At the same time, use of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) or protein by rumen microbes can result in reductions in expected yields of nutrients. For example, both protozoa and bacteria convert some portion of WSC to microbial glycogen, an internal storage carbohydrate that they can ferment later. This can help to maintain a healthy rumen pH by slowing down fermentation and acid production, but results in a use of 1 ATP per hexose added to the glycogen chains – a loss of ATP that reduces potential microbial protein yield. At the same time, dietary WSC, especially bona fide “sugars” (e.g., sucrose) are often associated with increased milk fat yields. For protein, microbial action on rumen degradable protein converts some portion to microbial cell walls which are indigestible, and ammonia which may be used by the microbes or excreted. The microbes can also convert nonprotein nitrogen sources such as urea to microbial protein, making protein useful to the cow out of a material that was not.
Essential to enhancing ruminal efficiency is understanding factors that affect it and translating those into approaches to diet formulation and management that support the desired results.
 
Keywords: dairy cattle, rumen, fermentation, efficiency.

Dr. Alfons Jansman, Wageningen University

Production of foods for humans has a major impact on environmental emissions, climate change and land-use. To reduce the impact, and minimize feed-food competition, implementation of the concept of circularity of food production will become increasingly important. In circular food systems, crop land is primarily used for plant-based food production, while by-products from food processing and biofuels i.e. crop residues, co-products of the food industry, grass from marginal land and food waste will be used to formulate diets for production animals. These ingredients generally contain less starch and fat (energy), are variable in protein content and, when of plant origin, contain more fibre and phytate compared to conventional feed ingredients. Use of more circular diets in pig production will have consequences for nutrient composition of the diet and their consumption by pigs might reveal physiological limitations related to digestion and post-absorptive metabolism. The use of circular diets will also direct more efforts towards processing of by-products and complete diets to maximize their nutritional value and minimize the environmental imprint. The potential challenges and consequences in formulating and using circular diets will be discussed from a nutritional, physiological, nutrient efficiency, health and welfare perspective.
 
Keywords: pigs, circular food production, by-products, nutrient efficiency, health.

Dr. Stephanie Terry, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Canada has set ambitious commitments for reaching its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 40 to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030. Likewise, agricultural industry stakeholders have made their own targets to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions. Methane production from enteric fermentation is the most important greenhouse gas to ruminant livestock production, representing 80% of Canada’s agricultural methane emissions. Although the carbon footprint of beef and milk production per unit of product in Canada is less than 50% of the global average, ambitious and novel solutions for decreasing enteric methane are required to meet national methane pledges. Feed additives targeting enteric methane reduction are reviewed as having the most potential for potent, immediate and effective action. Despite the incoming availability of commercially produced feed additives, there is not widespread adoption due to several limitations including system application, regulatory restrictions, certainty in their validity, and economics. This paper will discuss the opportunities, limitations, and future research of feed additive technologies with the potential to decrease enteric methane production from both the Canadian beef and dairy population. Additionally, this paper will highlight the importance of co-ordination between government, industry, and producers in order the make feed additives available to meet Canada’s 2030 targets.
 
Keywords: ruminants, greenhouse gas emissions, enteric methane, feed additives.