British Columbia may be best known for its natural resources, real estate and tourism industries, but the province is also considered a leader in food science and technology, particularly when it comes to the dairy cow.
B.C. has fewer dairy farms than Quebec, Ontario and Alberta and produces less than 10 per cent of the country’s milk, but is “leading the way” across Canada and globally when it comes to research on the animals that produce it, according to the 2015 State of Innovation report by Thomson Reuters.
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The research is coming out of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems department at the University of British Columbia and its Dairy Education and Research Centre in Agassiz, B.C., about 125 kilometres west of Vancouver.
The Dairy Centre, one of North America’s largest dairy cattle research and education facilities, is a self-sustaining dairy farm that houses 500 Holsteins, including 250 lactating cows. Its researchers look at issues such as animal welfare, food safety and sustainable farm practices, which not only allow farmers to better care for their dairy cows, but also increase productivity and production.
“Even though B.C. isn’t a huge farming province, we have a huge and progressive industry,” says Dan Weary, a professor at UBC’s animal welfare program. “It’s a good place to work together with dairy farmers on critical issues around sustainable production.”
UBC is among the world’s most influential scientific research institutions in food science and technology, according to the Thomson Reuters innovation report. It says the university’s 400 research papers, published between 2004-2014, are the most cited compared to other food science programs across the U.S. and Europe.
Most recently, the university’s dairy research landed the Dairy Centre on the shortlist for the Dairy Farmers of Canada 2015 Farm Sustainability Award.
“We try to find the practices that make life better for our cows, but also work well for our farmers,” Weary says. “There’s no point in coming up with solutions that sound great, but that we can’t get anyone to implement. That’s the challenge: Looking for the sweet space where we can get science proven practices, but at the same time bring the industry along with us to adopt the solutions.”
Among some of UBC’s more recent research is the discovery that cows learn better under a “buddy system.” The studies, conducted by Weary and postdoctoral research fellow Rebecca Meagher, show that cows housed together adjust more quickly to new feeding and milking technologies that are being implemented on today’s modern farms.
“At first, both the individually housed and pair-housed calves initially struggled with the task, but after a few training sessions the pair-housed calves began approaching the correct bottle while the individually housed calves persisted with the old strategy, visiting the incorrect bottle more often,” Meagher said in releasing the report.
She said the same type of learning deficit has also been found in separated laboratory animals.
Weary said the pairing practice is now catching on at farms across B.C. and Canada, helping both cows and farmers adjust to new milking equipment technology.
Another research result that is gaining traction among dairy farmers is changes to a cow’s maternity pen. In a study released earlier this year, UBC found that its cows preferred sand and sawdust over concrete and rubber mats, that latter of which has become more popular in the industry in recent years.
Of the 17 cows in the study, 10 calved on sand, six on concrete and one on rubber, the study says.
“The results of our preference tests indicate that even our modern, indoor-housed dairy cows are looking for a secluded place to calve, perhaps especially in busy barns and during busy times of the day,” the report says. “For now, we encourage producers to look with fresh eyes at their maternity housing, keeping cow preferences for seclusion in mind.”
Weary believes the cows prefer the sand and sawdust because it’s softer and more absorbent, “because biology happens. It keeps the cow healthy and clean.”
UBC has also done research showing calves can experience depression and anxiety, particularly after dehorning procedures. Cows are often dehorned to reduce risk of injury to themselves or other animals.
The study showed “pessimistic responses” that indicated a “negative emotional state in calves, similar to depression or anxiety in humans,” which persisted for about 22 hours after the procedure.
“This research highlights the importance of considering the pain that follows a procedure like dehorning, and argues in favour of treating this post-operative pain using an anti-inflammatory drug,” the research states.
“More generally, this work shows how we can ask calves and cows how they ‘feel’ about the housing and management decisions we make.”
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