Beef Farm Videos
In this 360 tour and other videos, you’ll tour two Ontario beef farms – a feedlot and a cow/calf farm and meet the farm families. They’ll explain how they raise and care for their cattle on these two different types of farms.
FarmFood360° Virtual Reality Beef Farm Tour
In this 360° video tour, you’ll get to tour a working Ontario beef feedlot and learn all about how cattle are cared for, what they eat, where they live, and how beef farmers care for their animals.
Environmental Sustainability on Beef Cattle Farms
Sixth generation beef cow/calf farmers Ryan and Allison talk about how important environmental sustainability is on their farm – specifically as it relates to pasture and grassland management. They explain some of their stewardship practices including healthy pasture rotation, soil sampling, stream fencing for water quality and wildlife and pollinator habitat protection measures.
All About Nutrition in Beef Cattle
On most Canadian beef farms, beef cows and their calves live on pasture during the spring, summer and fall, eating mostly a grass diet. Then, they generally move into feedlots where they grow until they are ready to go to market. In this video, the father/daughter team of Paul and Allison take you through their animals’ diet in their feedlot. They explain the various ingredients that are mixed together including a mixture of corn silage, grain corn (just the kernels), haylage (chopped up alfalfa and grass), wet distillers’ grain, vitamins and minerals. The diet (ration) is changed to meet changing needs as the cattle are growing.
Life of a Beef Farm Family
In this video, you’re going to meet beef farmers Trevor and Lorraine, their son Ryan, daughter-in-law Allison and granddaughters Anna and Paige. This cow/calf farm in Ontario has been in this family (which also includes brother Scott and his family) for six generations – since 1840. On cow/calf farms like this one, beef cows and their calves live on pasture during the spring, summer and fall, eating mostly a grass diet. Family members of three generations will talk about about how the farm has changed over the years and how they divide up responsibilities between the different generations.
Caring for Beef Cattle
Meet Ontario bovine veterinarian Dr. Batte and learn about her role in caring for cattle in this beef feedlot. You’ll also meet the father/daughter farmer team of Paul and Allison who explain what a feedlot is. Cattle live here from the time they are about 700 lbs (317 kg) in size until they’re about 1500 lbs (680 kg). Paul and Allison talk about record keeping, animal health and the Canadian Verified Beef Production Plus program.
Quick Facts:
- Beef cattle are ruminant animals (meaning they have four compartments in their stomach). That allows them to digest materials that cannot be used by people and converting it into wholesome, high-protein food suitable for human consumption. About 30 percent of Canada’s agricultural land is too hilly, rocky, cold or wet to grow crops, but it can support grazing livestock like cattle. Grazing cattle are great for the environment and play a very important role in the ecosystem by supporting biodiversity and soil health.
- There are two main streams of beef farming in Canada, cow calf and feedlot. Beef cows and their calves typically live on pasture during spring, summer and fall with a diet composed mostly of grasses. When they reach a weight of about 400 to 460 kg (about 900 to 1,000 pounds), they are usually moved from fields and ranges to penned yards or barns called feedlots. You’ll tour both types of farms through these videos taken on farms in Ontario.
- Once in the feedlot, cattle are gradually transitioned from a diet of mainly forages (like grasses and other plants) to a higher-energy diet of grains (like corn), hay silage (chopped and naturally fermented plants), minerals and hay.
- The average beef cattle herd size in Canada is 69. There are about 13 million cattle in Canada.
- There are many different breeds of beef cattle living on Canadian farms. The most common breeds include Aberdeen Angus, Charolais, Hereford, Simmental, Limousin and Shorthorn.
- All cattle in Canada have to have a Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) approved ear tag in their ear before they leave the farm they were born on. This radio-frequency identification tag has a unique number that helps farmers and meat processors maintain and promote food safety and traceability.