Canadian Beef Investment to Enhance Technology Use
CANADA - Agriculture and Agri-food Minister Lawrence MacAulay has announced an investment of over $4 million to the Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA) for three innovative projects.These projects will support the industry with new and existing markets both at home and abroad.
Canada's cattle industry remains one of the largest single sources of farm receipts totalling $9.8 billion in 2014, with approximately 1.3 million tonnes of beef produced annually.
Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, said: "The Government of Canada is pleased to be able to support the CCA in these innovative projects.
"These industry led projects will strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of the Canadian beef industry, while meeting consumer demands for safe high quality products."
Dave Solverson, President of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, added: "Innovation drives continuous improvement in the beef industry and funding forward-thinking projects like these ensures continued progress in key areas of sustainable production, quality, and business risk management to the benefit of the entire value chain, including consumers."
The three projects include:
- $2,601,500 million from the AgriMarketing Assurance Stream toward the development of tools to enable end-users (packers, retail food service), consumers and the industry to have easy access to beef product information.
- $380,834 under AgriRisk Initiatives for a feasibility study into the use of satellite-based technology to track and measure forage and pasture production for cattle producers. This study will lay the basis for developing field-level production-based forage insurance for producers.
- $1,045,510 under Agrilnnovation's Research and Development (R&D) Stream to work with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists to enhance the quality of Canadian beef using Computer Vision Systems (CVS) measurements. The CVS will image beef carcasses to predict and measure the tenderness, dark cutting, lean yield, bruising, and fat colour of beef.
TheCattleSite News Desk