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Posts Tagged: livestock
Livestock owners asked to weigh in on fire impact
Fire Impact and Risk Evaluation (FIRE) survey.
“We will aim to quantify the impact of wildfires in different livestock production systems,” said Beatriz Martínez López, director of the Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. “The idea is also to create a risk map showing areas more likely to experience wildfires with high economic impact in California.
“This economic and risk assessment, to the best of our knowledge, has not been done and we hope to identify potential actions that ranchers can take to reduce or mitigate their losses if their property is hit by wildfire.”
Martínez López, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Medicine & Epidemiology at UC Davis, is teaming up with UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisors and wildfire specialists around the state to conduct the study.
“Right now, we have no good estimate of the real cost of wildfire to livestock producers in California,” said Rebecca Ozeran, UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisor for Fresno and Madera counties. “Existing UCCE forage loss worksheets cannot account for the many other ways that wildfire affects livestock farms and ranches. As such, we need producers' input to help us calculate the range of immediate and long-term costs of wildfire.”
Stephanie Larson, UC Cooperative Extension livestock and range management advisor for Sonoma and Marin counties, agreed, saying, “The more producers who participate, the more accurate and useful our results will be.”
“We hope the survey results will be used by producers across the state to prepare for wildfire,” said Matthew Shapero, UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisor for Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, “And by federal and private agencies to better allocate funds for postfire programs available to livestock producers.”
The survey is online at http://bit.ly/FIREsurvey. It takes 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of properties the participant has that have been affected by wildfire.
“Survey answers are completely confidential and the results will be released only as summaries in which no individual's answers can be identified,” said Martínez López. “This survey will provide critical information to create the foundation for future fire economic assessments and management decisions.”
Livestock producers and rice farmers can work together to solve each other’s problems
The California drought has ranchers desperate for inexpensive livestock feed. Air quality protection regulations that limit rice straw burning leave the rice industry with an abundance of typically low-quality straw to unload. Though it has rarely been done, Nader believes special treatment of rice straw will make it a nutritious cattle food. Two problems solved.
Nader will introduce producers to this new way to get through the drought at a meeting from 9 a.m. to 12 noon July 29 at the Veterans Memorial Hall, 525 W. Sycamore St., Willows, Calif.
When rice straw dries, its value as a forage declines dramatically. For 15 years, UC researchers have been trying to figure out why, but the reason for the significant change is not understood at this time.
“At one time, we thought the problem was silica in the straw,” Nader said. “We grew silica-free rice. That didn't work. We thought it was the crystallinity of molecules in the straw. We parsed apart the plant, and we still don't know.”
Ultimately, it was a rancher who suggested the scientists to put aside their desire to know why quality declines when rice straw dries and look for practical ways to get around it. Nader postponed his retirement to comply.
Normally, rice growers bale the straw two to four days after harvest. Nader and his colleagues instead baled the straw immediately after it exited the grain harvester. They stacked the green straw bales and covered them with a tarp to retain moisture and prevent spontaneous combustion. The result is a product they named “strawlage.” One worry is mold. The researchers found that treating the straw with propionic acid prevents fungus growth.
“We haven't figured everything out, but with the drought conditions as serious as they are, we feel the time is right to share our research with growers,” Nader said. “We invite producers to come to the meeting to see if this will work for their operations. Several producers who have already fed strawlage to their cattle will speak at the meeting about their experiences.”
Nader believes the UC research into using rice straw for livestock feed will be helpful throughout the world.
Asian farmers produce rice straw in great abundance and their livestock would benefit significantly if the farmers worked to maintain the plant's moisture until it reaches cattle feeding troughs.
The July 29 meeting will cover:
- Nutritional advantages of strawlage over rice straw
- The challenges of baling the straw at 50 to 60 percent moisture
- Additives to prevent mold
- How to stake and tarp strawlage
- The costs associated with the practice
- How cows that ate strawlage last year fared
“Our goal is to give producers information that will allow them to make rice strawlage during this fall's harvest,” Nader said. “Both cattle and rice producers are encouraged to attend.”
Scientists target E. coli from farm to fork
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is funding the $25 million, coast-to-coast project, to which UC Davis is providing expertise in livestock health, foodborne disease and consumer food marketing.
The project, announced Jan. 23 by the USDA, aims to reduce the occurrence of and public health risks associated with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. The research effort is led by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
UC Davis researchers collaborating in the project include James Cullor, a professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine; Christine Bruhn, a food science marketing specialist and director of the Center for Consumer Research; and Terry Lehenbauer, director, and Sharif Aly, assistant professor, both of the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare.
Cullor and his colleagues in the veterinary school's Dairy Food Safety Laboratory -- in Davis and Tulare -- will conduct research aimed at reducing the microbial counts on cattle hides during processing, looking for ecologically responsible methods for enhancing food safety. They also will test radiofrequency technologies, which use electrical currents oscillating at specific frequencies to inactivate E. coli on beef carcasses during processing.
Bruhn will collaborate with North Carolina State University and Kansas State University to reduce health risks associated with undercooked hamburgers. The researchers will encourage television food programs to include safe food-handling practices and messages.
In addition, Bruhn will work with health care professionals to raise the number of food-handling messages directed toward consumers who are at increased risk for foodborne illness, especially children and people with diabetes. She also will investigate consumer interest in the use of irradiation or high-pressure technologies to enhance the safety of ground meat.
Lehenbauer, Aly and their colleagues at the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center will participate in animal research needed for understanding the epidemiology and ecology of non-Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, after information from preliminary studies is used to develop the scientific protocols for these animal-sampling projects. The research team will focus on dairy cattle, including male Holstein cattle that are being raised for beef production
Other participants are the University of Delaware, New Mexico State University, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, the University of Arkansas, the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, and a consortium of government, academic and industry scientists and food safety professionals.
