Dairy Unit:

The Kemptville Campus Dairy Unit includes a 32 cow tie-stall dairy barn, 50 and 120 head conventional pole barns, a 30 head calf barn, two 35 head heifer/dry-cow barns, and approximately 35 calf hutches. A slatted floor beef feedlot has been converted into a free-stall barn with the capacity to hold 55 cows, heifers or steers.

The dairy unit has the capability to conduct research in a broad range of areas. Studies over the past few years have focused on applied management studies relating to housing, nutrition and reproduction of a high producing dairy herd. The composite BCA has been between 230-240 since 1993.

Main Research Focus Areas:

• Nutrition
• Reproduction
• Housing
• Environment & Pathogens

Several major nutritional studies are ongoing. Pearl millet and sorghum are being assessed as alternatives to haylage or corn silage in diets for cattle. A single group total mixed ration for use in a high producing dairy herd continues to be modified. Ongoing research will focus on the close-up and transition feeding periods and alternative forages.

Reproductive research focuses on advanced reproductive techniques such as embryo transfer technologies which improve the media/culture system used to produce the embryos. Replacement calf rearing programs are focusing on nutritional, management and housing alternatives. Strategies to control neonatal scours are the main areas of current focus.

A new addition to the scope of research at the Kemptville Campus Dairy Unit involves pasturing cattle along surface water sources to quantify the nutrient and pathogen load changes in the water from livestock sources.  Collaborations with Ottawa University, Centre for Research in Environmental Microbiology and the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority give this research both large scale applications and local importance.

Kemptville Campus: General Information 613-258-8336

Food & Nutrition Unit:

Research is being conducted in the area of food drying. In addition to several bench-top drying units, the lab is equipped with an Armfield Model UOP8 Tray Dryer.  This is a laboratory-scale dryer designed to monitor moisture losses from products over extended time periods.  It features variable air temperatures and air delivery rates.  Information gained from this dryer can be used in characterizing the drying kinetics of various products which in turn can be used to establish conditions for drying in commercial or production-scale dryers.

Research is also being conducted on the kinetics of solar drying.  Several prototype solar dryers have been developed and used successfully in Africa (Equatorial Guinea) and Central America (Honduras) as well as in Canada.

Rorke Hall Sensory Lab contains 10 cubical unit and an area for round table panel training. Adjacent to this area is a sample preparation kitchen used to set-up sample trays. Across the hall is a food lab with 5 stoves, refrigerators and a large counter/work area that is utilized for large projects.

Fraser Hall Food Lab designed for recipe development and food sample preparation for analysis. The use of household equipment allows for consumer replication in the development/testing of recipes. Work is done for government departments, food companies  and fellow researchers.

Field Crop Unit:

Field crop research takes place at the Kemptville Campus, the Winchester Research Station and a number of off-station sites. The campus, located on Grenville sandy loam, represents much of the Precambrian-based soils west of the Campus. For many years it has been used for perennial forage variety and management studies and for cereal, corn and soybeans grown on lighter soil.

The Winchester Research Station comprises 60 hectares, located on North Gower clay loam and represents approximately 400,000 hectares in the Ottawa and South Nation river valleys. Once drained, this clay loam is well suited to the annual field crops, corn, cereals and soybeans. Most of the variety trials and weed control management studies for these crops are done at this station.

To gain additional sites on different soils and crop heat unit ratings, corn is also tested at Lancaster and Pakenham. A variety of research procedures are available for contract to the private sector.

Main Research Focus Areas:

• Soil Fertility and Amendments
• Crop Rotation and Tillage Methods
• Weed Control - Chemical and Cultural Methods

Variety testing and management studies routinely form part of the provincial field crop recommendations. Soil fertility studies are used in provincial fertilizer recommendations. Recently, the use of industrial bio-solid waste has been studied as a fertility source and a means to restore soil structure as well as a disposal procedure.

Crop rotation research conducted after continuous corn growth examines the effect of break crops and tillage methods in restoring soil structure and fertility. Traditional chemical weed control has been extended to integrated weed control using cultural methods and various forms of reduced tillage.

Agroforestry Education Centre:

Researchers: Simon Lachance, Tim Chajkowski and Dr. Tim Rennie

It typically takes 40 litres of maple sap to produce 1 litre of maple syrup; a process requiring significant energy from burning wood, fuel oil, or natural gas. The burning of fossil fuels, however, is a major contributor to environmental and economic concerns. Kemptville Campus operates a demonstrative maple production facility compromised of 1200 taps in 800 maple trees using an oil-fired evaporator. Researchers at Kemptville Campus have been looking for ways to minimize both the environmental and economic costs of maple production.

Before maple sap is evaporated, Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology removes a large portion of water from the sap, thus reducing boiling time in the evaporator and the energy requirements for the evaporation process. On average, the RO unit at Kemptville reduce the amount of liquid running into the evaporator by 73%, leading to the following savings during the 2007 sugaring season at Kemptville Campus:

*Since 2007, oil costs have increased dramatically. Therefore savings would be
significantly larger now and will likely increase in the future, as oil costs continue to rise.

While the preliminary research is in maple syrup production, environmental and energy savings as a result of RO technology are applicable to other processing industries.

Next Steps

Looking ahead, researchers will be investigating the use of bio-oil as an alternative energy source in oil-fired evaporators. Successful implementation will result in maple syrup production with overall lower green house gas (GHG) emissions and reduced reliance on petroleum-based fuels. The bio-oil will be produced through fast pyrolysis of wood residues (waste products).