Posts

The four pillars of responsible beef production

/15 Comments/in , , , , /by

Alberta’s cattle feeders take great pride in the crucial role they play in producing our province’s world class beef – and in using responsible and sustainable production methods.

Here at the Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association (ACFA), we support our members in continuous improvement under four pillars:

1. Animal care

Alberta’s cattle feeders believe in treating the animals that feed us with care and respect. They follow the National Beef Code of Practice to ensure the finest in animal care, food safety and sustainability.

Two key programs that help them maintain the highest standards of animal care are:

-The Feedlot Animal Care Assessment Program

-The Canadian Livestock Transportation Certification

2. Animal health and production

Ensuring the health and well-being of livestock is a top priority for feedlot operators. ACFA is heavily invested in helping through initiatives such as the new histophilosis vaccine, and through forage and feed grain research.

3. Environment

Cattle feeders work hard to minimize environmental impact from their operations. 

ACFA has participated in several initiatives:

-The Feedlot Emergency Preparedness Plan which protects animals, the environment and human health in the event of an incident such as a disease outbreak or a natural disaster. 

-Environmental impact studies, such as Alberta Agriculture and Resource Development’s Livestock Impact on Groundwater Quality in Alberta.

-Interaction with the Natural Resources Conservation Board on environmental initiatives.

-Membership of the Intensive Livestock Working Group and Agri-Environmental Partnership of Alberta. 

–Project Clean Cow.

4. People and communities

Protecting people, and the communities in which they operate is important for cattle feeders. Food safety, farm safety and community service are at the centre of their everyday operations.

It is on these four pillars that Alberta’s cattle feeders operate in the most responsible manner possible. They strive to ensure excellence in animal care, food safety, farm safety, and respect for people and their communities. At ACFA we are working hard to support them in those efforts.

How 5 freedoms help ensure excellence in animal care

/13 Comments/in /by

A lot of progress has been made since Alberta’s livestock producers banded together 25 years ago to promote excellence in animal care.

Commodity organizations, including the Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association, founded Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC) in 1993 to ensure that all producers have access to the resources and information they need to provide a comfortable, low-stress environment for their animals.

“We are a non-profit, multi-species animal welfare organization,” said Kristen Hall, marketing and membership manager at AFAC. “We were formed by the livestock industry, for the livestock industry, to be a collective voice for animal welfare within the province.”

The notion of animal care is based on the five freedoms:

  1. Freedom from hunger and thirst
  2. Freedom from discomfort
  3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease
  4. Freedom from fear and distress
  5. Freedom to express their normal behaviours

 

Some of the free resources AFAC provides for livestock producers include guidelines, videos, codes of practice and factsheets.

On Sept. 7 and 8, AFAC is partnering with the Foothills Forage and Grazing Association to host a Stockmanship Clinic. The two-day course will be taught by Dylan Biggs, cattle handling expert and specialist in low-stress animal care.

“We find people are very keen to learn,” said Kristen. “Even though they might have been caring for animals their whole lives and they’re already doing a good job, for the most part they’re still willing to take the opportunity to learn more.”

As well as providing resources for livestock producers, AFAC also advocates for the industry. “We do a lot of public education, at events such as the Calgary Stampede and Aggie Days,” said Kristen. “We also do classroom sessions in schools, teaching students how food animals are raised.”

Each year, AFAC hosts a Livestock Care Conference. The next one is scheduled for March 20 and 21, 2019, in Olds, AB.

You can read about some of the other programs that promote animal care and welfare, including the Feedlot Animal Care Assessment Tool, in ‘Animal care is a top priority for Alberta’s cattle feeders.’

Dr. Joyce Van Donkersgoed wins award for contributions to cattle care

/11 Comments/in , /by

Joyce Van Donkersgoed is a valued member of the cattle feeding sector who we’ve written about in previous posts on this blog. Her contributions to animal care and welfare make hers a familiar name among industry members.

We were delighted to see Joyce recognized at the 50th annual conference of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners on Sept. 14, 2017, in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Metacam® 20 Bovine Welfare Award is given each year to recognize the achievements of an individual in advancing the welfare of animals via leadership, public service, education, research/product development, and/or advocacy. It is awarded to a doctor of veterinary medicine or animal scientist working in Canada, or a faculty member or a graduate student of a Canadian university. The recipient is someone whose work significantly improves bovine welfare in cattle production and research systems, or improves scientific methods of measuring bovine welfare.

Joyce is the owner of Alberta Beef Health Solutions in Picture Butte, Alberta, providing emergency, herd health and production services as well as research and regulatory services. She was also instrumental in the development of the Feedlot Animal Care Assessment Program (pdf) which we wrote about in ‘New assessment tool to audit feedlot animal care’.

Of her research work, Joyce said: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure, which includes animal welfare, and we must continually strive to improve. Beef veterinarians have a key ethical and moral responsibility to ensure animal welfare whilst balancing the needs of their clients. It isn’t always simple or easy to do, but persistence does pay off over time if you don’t give up and are doing the right thing for the animals, which is ultimately best for the client.”

Joyce donated the $2,000 award to the National Cattle Feeders’ Association (NCFA) Welfare Committee.

You can read more about Joyce and her achievements in ‘Feedlot people: meet a cattle feedlot veterinarian’.

McDonald’s verified sustainable beef – what does that mean for Canadians?

/14 Comments/in , , , /by

Sustainability is something of a watchword these days, but when it comes to beef, what does it actually mean?

That’s a question McDonald’s asked themselves when they made a commitment to source all their food and packaging from sustainable sources. Read more

Feedlot people – veterinarian Lynn Locatelli

/18 Comments/in , /by

This is the second in our feedlot people series, and this week we meet Dr. Lynn Locatelli from Cattlexpressions. Lynn hails from New Mexico, U.S.A., but she’s a familiar sight in Alberta, where she consults with feedlots and other cattle operations on low stress cattle handling. Read more

Feedlot people: meet a cattle feedlot veterinarian

/11 Comments/in /by

This is the first post in our Feedlot people series, and this week we’re meeting veterinarian Joyce Van Donkersgoed, the owner of Alberta Beef Health Solutions, in Picture Butte, Alberta.

Joyce grew up in southern Alberta, on a farm just east of Coaldale. Her parents ran a cow calf feedlot and hay/grain operation, and before that a dairy herd, so she grew up as immersed in the cattle world as is possible!

“When I was 12 years old I made my mind up I wanted to be a cow vet”, said Joyce, and she never waivered from that ambition. She trained as a veterinarian at the University of Saskatchewan, and later returned to complete her masters in veterinary science, with a clinical residency in beef cattle production medicine and epidemiology.

Helping discover better ways to care for cattle

Joyce van Donkersgoed

Today Joyce is well known in the industry as a teacher, author and researcher. In fact she collaborated on the Feedlot Animal Care Assessment Program (pdf), which we wrote about in last week’s blog post: New assessment tool to audit feedlot animal care.

“I love research because I love solving problems,” said Joyce. “We’re always trying to help our clients find better ways to do things, whether it’s a new vaccine, a better antibiotic or feed additive, or how we handle cattle. I’ve also been involved in building a lot of industry programs and training programs over the years. It’s a great feeling when you see your hard work pay off — when you’ve got through to someone, you’ve trained someone and they get it, and then they’re better at their job and the cattle are being better cared for.”

But research will always be a relatively small part of how Joyce spends her days. “I still go in the field,” she said. “It’s important to walk the walk because it’s hard for me to train staff or help my clients if I don’t understand what’s going on in the yard, and the only way I can do that is if I actually get dirty. I still do my share of calls.”

Over the years Joyce has found herself branching out from cattle, as one of her clients has a lamb feedlot and a ewe operation, but cattle will always be her passion. 

Joyce — a self-confessed workaholic — doesn’t have a great deal of free time, but what she does have is spent caring for her ageing parents, mowing her six acres of grass and enjoying her two chocolate labs. “I bought a piece of my Dad’s farm so that I could live close and they can still live in their own house. And my Dad can still get on his John Deere tractor, even though he probably shouldn’t, because he’s 89!”

Stay tuned for upcoming posts when we will meet more of the people of Alberta’s cattle feedlots.

New assessment tool to audit feedlot animal care

/9 Comments/in , , /by

Last week on this blog, we talked about the fact that cattle feeders are committed to high standards of animal care – we explained that it’s both good business sense, and the right thing to do. We also explained why it’s not enough for individual feedlot operators to know that their standards are high: Read more

3 things you should know about Canadian beef

/13 Comments/in /by

The availability of certified humane beef has been a hot topic in the last few days, and that’s not a discussion we plan to wade into here. But if the debate has got you wondering about animal husbandry practices — as they pertain to beef — we’ve got answers for you.

Read more

Animal care is a top priority for Alberta’s cattle feeders

/6 Comments/in , , /by

In previous blog posts we’ve talked about the ways Alberta cattle feeders are building public trust.

Key to that is confidence that cattle feedlots are operating in an ethical and sustainable way. That’s a priority for Alberta’s cattle feeders, and one we take seriously as the association for the industry. So, this week we’re taking a look at how we ensure that our animals are cared for in the very best way possible. Read more