New facility will help improve dairy industry
The University of Guelph was proud to announce the opening of the Livestock Research and Innovation Centre (LRIC) – Dairy Facility at Elora on May 28, 2015. The $25 million centre is state-of-the-art, and comes equipped with resources for scientists, stakeholders, and students to all collaborate and better understand financial, environmental, and social issues surrounding the dairy industry. Research will be carried out to improve animal nutrition, genetics, health and welfare, as well as human food safety and health.
The LRIC is a co-operative centre involving the U of G, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO), the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (ARIO), and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). It will be home to 25 full-time employees, and it replaces the previous facility constructed in 1969.
A news release by the university’s Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, Jeff Leal, stated, “the new LRIC is an excellent example of how industry, government, and academia can work together to ensure Ontario’s livestock sector remains innovative, competitive, and a leader in the agri-food sector. Ontario’s dairy farmers and stakeholders, with the support of the Ontario government, are committed to leading research in animal husbandry, environmental sustainability, and best management practices to ensure the highest quality dairy products for Ontarians.”
Furthermore, in the same news release, the university’s Associate Vice-President of Strategic Partnerships, Rich Moccia, explained that the OMAFRA-U of G collaboration “promotes a research culture that develops knowledge and mobilizes that knowledge to benefit the agri-food sector, which is vital to the health and prosperity of Ontario.”
The LRIC features a great deal of advanced technology and equipment. Included is a maternity wing and nursery with precise lighting and ventilation control for robotic feeding of calves, as well as high-tech sensors allowing analysis of dairy cow feeding behavior, a custom-designed metabolic research wing permitting individual animals to be monitored, and a robotic milker able to identify individual animals and ensure product quality by evaluating metrics such as milk yield and quality.
The dairy industry is a major and important contributor to Canadian agriculture. In 2014, Statistics Canada had 959,300 dairy cows and 444,200 dairy heifers from 11,962 farms across the country on record. Ontario consumed 78.03 litres of fluid milk per capita alone, while the Canadian average was 74.17 litres per capita. In addition, the Canadian Dairy Information Centre recognized over $6.5 billion in total revenue from milk sales nationally, and over $158 million in exports from Canadian dairy genetics in 2014.