Strengthening Lakeland College's Feed Efficiency and Supplementation Research in Cattle and Sheep

莱克兰学院是一所双省(艾伯塔省和萨斯喀彻温省)公立学院。该学院的牲畜研究设施位于艾伯塔省的朱利安，这是一个位于牛犊牛肉中心地带的小镇，地理位置优越。学院拥有饲料效率测试中心，同时支持几个尖端研究项目、验证和演示，以及使用学生管理的企业模式在畜牧业生产方面提供无与伦比的实践培训机会。**目前，饲料成本占畜牧业可变成本的70%。来自生物(例如疾病)、非生物(例如极端天气条件)和监管(例如使用抗菌剂、温室气体排放)风险因素的不可预测挑战越来越多。饲料利用能力提高的动物可以改善牲畜经营的底线。同样，一些新兴的饲料添加剂或补充剂有可能改善牲畜的生长性能、健康和福利。生产商越来越多地要求利用这些有益的选择，这导致莱克兰学院需要利用现有的基础设施和动物资源(牛肉、乳制品和绵羊)来提高应用研究能力。**该提案请求NSERC提供资金支持，以购买C-Lock的SmartFeed-Pro(SFP)系统的六(6)台。这将使学院能够扩大其在牲畜饲料效率分析和补充研究方面的研究范围，以满足牲畜、饲料和技术行业的需求。艾伯塔省或萨斯喀彻温省目前不存在使用这些单位提供服务支持的情况。这些自主系统将补充现有的基础设施，以进行更强大和尖端的研究。SFP单元是便携式的，可以利用学院的牛和羊资源。与这些单位开展的研究项目还将为监管部门批准新的饲料、补充剂或遥测工具提供必要的经验支持，以改善动物的性能和健康，同时加强向学生提供的培训。

Lakeland College is a bi-provincial (Alberta and Saskatchewan) public college. The College's livestock research facilities are ideally located in Vermilion, an Alberta town within the heartland of cow-calf beef operations. The College houses a feed efficiency test center while supporting several cutting-edge research projects, validations and demonstrations as well as unparalleled hands-on training opportunities in livestock production using the Student-Managed enterprise model. **Currently, feed cost represents up to 70% of variable costs in livestock operations. There are increasing unpredictable challenges from biotic (e.g. disease), abiotic (e.g. extreme weather conditions) and regulatory (e.g. antimicrobial use, greenhouse gas emission) risk factors. Animals with improved feed-utilization abilities can improve the bottom lines of livestock operations. Similarly, some emerging feed additives or supplements have the potential to improve livestock growth performance, health and welfare. The growing requests from producers to tap into these beneficial options have led to the need for Lakeland College to leverage existing infrastructure and animal resources (beef, dairy and sheep) towards increasing applied research capacity. **This proposal requests funding support from NSERC to purchase of six (6) units of C-Lock's SmartFeed-Pro (SFP) systems. This will enable the College to expand its scope of research in livestock feed efficiency profiling and supplementation research towards addressing the needs of the livestock, feed and technological industries. Use of these units to provide service support does not currently exist in Alberta or Saskatchewan. These autonomous systems will complement the existing infrastructure towards conducting more robust and cutting-edge research. The SFP units are portable and can be used on the College's cattle and sheep resources. Research projects conducted with these units will also provide the needed empirical support for regulatory approvals of new feeds, supplements or telemetric tools that improve animal performance and health, while enhancing the training offered to students.**