BY NATALIE OSBORNE
SPARK PROGRAM
An infrared camera such as the kind commonly used in military operations, energy audits and medical testing is giving Canadian cattle producers a unique way to look at their animals’ feed efficiency.
Researchers say the novel use of infrared cameras on farms could improve the way producers identify their most feed-efficient cattle while making their herds more environmentally friendly.
Profs. Steve Miller, Kendall Swanson and Brian McBride of the Department of Animal and Poultry Science and post-doctoral researcher Yuri Montanholi are using infrared cameras to determine how much heat and methane beef and dairy cattle release from their bodies. That measurement will help reveal which animals use feed most efficiently, so farmers can capitalize on those animals in their breeding programs.
“Feed costs are rising, so whatever aspect of feed efficiency can be improved will make an impact,” says Montanholi. “If you can decrease feed intake but keep the same performance in your animals, you are producing less manure and fewer greenhouse gases. It all comes down to making production more sustainable. The infrared camera is a tool that could replace the costly and time-consuming traditional methods of measuring feed efficiency.”
As cattle eat, energy and nutrients are used primarily to regulate body temperature, metabolism and organ functions. When the animals ingest more feed than they need for these demands, they emit the excess energy as heat. This can be detected and measured by directing an infrared camera at “hot spots” such as the feet and snout. Any excess energy detected represents a waste of feed and money.
Considerable energy is also lost through methane gas, a major greenhouse gas. So the researchers are using the infrared technology to assess methane production by taking thermographs on both right and left flanks. The rumen, the main site of methane production, is closer to the left side of the abdomen. Thermographs from the left flank represent the rumen’s temperature fluctuations; thermographs from the right flank mirror body temperature fluctuations.
All this may sound like some futuristic model, but Miller says the infrastructure is already in place.
“Technicians hired by producers typically go farm to farm with an ultrasound measuring the body composition of cattle when they’re about a year old,” he says. “Those same technicians could have infrared cameras and be measuring heat production, too.”
Funding for this project is provided by the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council; the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; the Canada Foundation for Innovation; and the Ontario Innovation Trust.
During the development of the research, Montanholi was sponsored by CAPES, the Brazilian government foundation for the co-ordination of higher education and graduate training.