A new pathway to livestock profits with infrared technology
A new research trial in central Alberta is shining the spotlight on a potentially revolutionary new system for optimizing feed efficiency in livestock.
The trial, at Pine Haven beef cattle operation, is led by nutritionists at Country Junction Feeds along with science advisor Dr. Al Schaefer. It involves the innovative application of leading-edge infrared thermography (IRT) technology, integrated with strategic animal nutrition expertise, to support everything from herd improvement planning to advanced precision feeding.
This system, now supported by years of pioneering research and the latest patented technology, shows advantages for reducing the cost of production and environmental impact while supporting continuous improvement each production cycle.
“The results we’re seeing are very promising,” says Bernie Grumpelt, livestock nutritionist with Country Junction Feeds in Wetaskawin. “With continued refinement, there is strong potential for IRT-based approaches integrated with nutrition knowledge to become a new standard for addressing feed efficiency, bringing many advantages to livestock industries.”
Leading-edge IRT-based approach
Though pioneered as an application for use with beef production, the technology and system model also hold potential for optimizing feed efficiency across other livestock sectors. The IRT technology utilization applied with the new system is based on over 20 years of IRTrelated livestock research led by Schaefer and colleagues. This includes numerous landmark studies identifying correlations between IRT measurements and reliable identifiers of metabolic efficiency among individual animals. For example, with beef cattle the IRT approach identifies energy loss as expressed by thermography measurements from key anatomical areas – this has been shown to correlate with conventional efficiency measurements using residual feed intake values.
Fast, practical and accurate
“With the application for beef cattle, we’ve developed the technology to the point where we can now take an IRT image of an animal and by running that information through our software and database we can quickly and reliably determine its relative metabolic efficiency or feed efficiency performance compared to other animals in the herd,” says Schaefer. “This gives the producer a fast, effective and practical tool to identify the relative efficiency of each of the animals.” While current industry standard technologies for sorting efficiency with cattle take 70 to 100 days to provide information, the new IRT-based model takes about 20 seconds per animal and delivers actionable information in real time. That means the technology is more accessible to commercial herds...The system is non-invasive and very animal friendly as well as handler friendly. You simply walk the animal past the IRT camera. The RFID on each animal is used to trigger a Bluetooth communication to the camera, an image is taken and you’re done, simple as that. The software does a near instant processing of the IRT measurement data, using algorithms and other database information to provide simple to understand results.”