A total of $6.8 million in funding was announced by Canada's Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay and Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit for livestock and forage research activities.

Provided through the Agriculture Development Fund under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, this investment will support a total of 30 new research projects for 2024. This year’s funding is a nearly 14% increase compared to last year.

“Investments like these are helping the agriculture sector prepare for the future,” MacAulay said. “These research projects will help our farmers adopt more sustainable practices and new methods to counter the effects of drought, diseases and other environmental challenges they face, so they can stay competitive and protect their bottom line.”

"We need our livestock producers to stay competitive and profitable, and they do that by staying innovative through new ideas which become best practices," Marit said. "Investments in agricultural research help Saskatchewan maintain its status as a go-to jurisdiction when it comes to sustainably feeding the world while meeting our economic goals for the end of this decade and beyond."

This year's projects, which are awarded funding on an annual competitive basis, focus on topics such as the development of a rapid and sensitive pathogen surveillance method for Bovine Respiratory Disease in cattle, development of new red clover cultivars for Western Canada, and African swine fever preparedness with a focus on evaluating manure management and treatment strategies and understanding pathogen survival in mortality management.

In addition to the federal-provincial ADF funding, a total of $478,597 for eight livestock and forage projects was contributed by five industry co-funders:

“We are very enthusiastic about supporting research and development of new red clover cultivars adapted to seed production in Saskatchewan and relevant to use in domestic and export markets,” Saskatchewan Forage Seed Development Commission Executive Director Jo-Anne Relf-Eckstein said. “Red clover is an efficient source of organic nitrogen, improves soil health and reduces erosion during the winter while providing a habitat for pollinators and supporting honey production. With its high protein content, it’s also an important crop for the ruminant industry, and maintaining a consistent supply of high-quality adapted seed sources helps support livestock producers. The ‘dream team’ assembled for this unprecedented research project creates a collaborative opportunity to support Saskatchewan’s seed growers and forage seed exporters, livestock producers and the provincial bio-economy.”

The ADF is supported through Sustainable CAP, a five-year, $3.5 billion investment by Canada's federal, provincial and territorial governments that helps to advance Canada's agri-food and agri-product sectors. This includes $1 billion in federal programs and activities and a $2.5 billion commitment that is cost-shared 60 per cent federally and 40 per cent provincially/territorially for programs that are designed and delivered by provinces and territories.

For more information, including a full list of funded projects, please visit the website.