Source: Dairy Research Cluster
The dairy cow, as a ruminant, has the unique ability to transform forages that can’t be digested by humans into a high-value nutritious food: milk. A multidisciplinary team of scientists across Canada are working on improving forages, especially alfalfa, to increase the efficiency of milk production and dairy farm sustainability.
“Our overall objective is to increase alfalfa’s nutritive value, yield, and persistence through crop breeding and management”, said Dr. Annie Claessens, a research scientist at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada – Quebec Research and Development Centre and the principal investigator of a new Dairy Research Cluster 3 project called, Increasing the production and utilization of alfalfa forages in Canada. “We are using genetics to identify and select traits in alfalfa populations for greater energy to protein ratios to develop a higher nutritive value in alfalfa-based forages fed to dairy cattle. We are also selecting for higher yield, persistence and disease resistance,” added Dr. Claessens.
Dr. Claessens, who is also co-owner of the Phylum dairy farm in Quebec, understands the importance of producing quality forage for dairy cows. Feed costs are one of the highest cost items on a dairy farm[1] and forage makes up about 50-60% of the ration fed to dairy cows. While the selection and breeding of forages take time – anywhere from 10 to 20 years to commercialize new cultivars – the return on investment can be considerable[2]. An economic study from the University of Nevada[3] on the use of a new alfalfa cultivar with a 5% yield increase was estimated to provide a 43% return on investment, showing the potential economic benefits of forage improvement on dairy farms.
Cows fed with forages with a higher sugar content use nitrogen more efficiently and have higher milk production. Previous research conducted by Dr. Claessens’ team as part of a project funded by the Dairy Research Cluster 2 from 2013-2018 identified 26 genes related to sugar concentration in alfalfa, developed two alfalfa populations with greater sugar concentrations and associated different crop management practices favouring higher energy to protein ratio.
The team is using the results from the Cluster 2 project to select plant material with superior sugar concentration to accelerate the development of cultivars with this trait and evaluating it under field conditions. The populations are planted on research sites across Canada (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec) to subject them to different weather and soil conditions and then measure yield and persistency.
In the labs, the team of scientists analyze the nutritional value of the plants at different times of harvest, in variable conditions. “We will be testing the populations to identify the crop management practices that achieve an optimal balance between readily fermentable carbohydrates and non-degradable proteins, using different alfalfa-based mixtures of forage. We then examine the effects of the energy to protein ratio on in vitro microbial protein synthesis in the rumen,” said Dr. Gaëtan Tremblay, research scientist and team member at the Quebec Research and Development Centre.
Dairy farmers can expect that when the project is completed, the data and genetic material from alfalfa evaluation trials across Canada will be available to Canadian forage breeders to select experimental populations and potentially commercialize new and improved cultivars. Ultimately, the availability of new alfalfa cultivars will help increase the production of milk from forage and improve protein utilization, thus reducing reliance on concentrates and nitrogen discharges … significant economic and environmental impacts!
A summary of Dr. Claessens’ new research project is online at dairyresearch.ca. Forage breeding and management for improved yield, resistance, conservation, quality and digestibility is a priority area of research and investment in Dairy Farmers of Canada’s National Dairy Research Strategy.
Quick project facts
- Project timeline: 2018-2022
- Budget: $1,124,970
- Funding partners: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Dairy Farmers of Canada
- Number of students to be trained: 4 graduate students and ˃ 25 undergraduate students
The research team
| RESEARCHERS | ORGANIZATION | ROLES |
| Principal Investigator (PI) | ||
| Annie Claessens | AAFC – Quebec | Responsible for forage breeding and genetics, coordination of activities among researchers and student training and supervision. |
| Co-investigators and collaborators | ||
| Bill Biligetu (Co-PI) | University of Saskatchewan | Forage breeding and genetics; student training and supervision. |
| Patrice Audy, Gilles Bélanger, Annick Bertrand, Julie Lajeunesse, Solen Rocher, Marie-Noëlle Thivierge, Gaëtan Tremblay | AAFC – Quebec and Normandin | Forage crop molecular genetics; assessment of the nutritive value of feedstuffs; crop physiology and agronomy; forage pathology, physiology and biochemistry; agro-ecosystem modelling and agroclimatology; site testing; student training and supervision. |
| Shabtai Bittman, Derek Hunt | AAFC – Agassiz | Nutrient management in farming systems; plant biology; site testing. |
| Surya Acharya | AAFC – Lethbridge | Forage breeding. |
| Édith Charbonneau, Caroline Halde | Université Laval | Dairy cow forage nutrition; agroecology; student training and supervision. |
| Ralph Martin | University of Guelph | Forage agronomy; site testing. |
| Kathleen Glover, Yousef Papadopoulos | AAFC – Kentville | Forage agronomy; forage breeding; site testing |
| Daniel Ouellet | AAFC – Sherbrooke | Nitrogen metabolism and nutrition of dairy cattle; student training and supervision. |
| Philippe Seguin | McGill University | Management, physiology and ecology of field crops; student training and supervision. |
| Vern Baron | AAFC – Lacombe | Forage and pasture agronomy and crop physiology. |
| Mike Schellenberg | AAFC – Swift Current | Range and forage plant ecology. |
| Charles Brummer | University of California | Forage breeding and genetics. |
| Josef Hakl | Czech University | Agronomy and forage nutritive value. |
| Huguette Martel | Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Québec | Forage crops and agro-environment. |
[1] https://www.milk.org/Corporate/pdf/Publications-ODFAPReport.pdf
[2] https://www.beefresearch.ca/research-topic.cfm/breeding-forage-varieties-13
[3] Kettle et al. Investing in new varieties of alfalfa: Does-it pay? Fact Sheet 99-31. University of Nevada
