Agritech and novel Feed Additives for improved Beef Cattle

Bakerview Farm, a state-of-the-art beef and dairy farm located centrally in Abbotsford, BC, is determined to be consistent innovators in animal agriculture. Spoitz Inc. is working with Bakerview to develop their newest premium product, Hiro Beef, which is produced from full-blood Wagyu beef cattle. With the goal of optimizing their production, two projects have been developed:

(1) Building Consumer Trust in Premium Beef Products: A Pilot and Demonstration Project Using Block-chain Technology for Agri-food Supply Chain Data Integration and Authentication

Spoitz Inc. worked with Bakerview to develop this project for the BC Agritech Grant program that aims to better track and understand their beef products. We have partnered with KPMG to customize their block-chain enabled traceability platform, KPMG Origins, to verify the authenticity of each pure wagyu beef product from farm to fork. Further technology advances such as in-pen feed intake and weight monitoring (Vytelle Sense system) have been installed to evaluate the effects of diet and breed on animal performance. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries.

(2) Evaluation of Pacific Coastal Seaweeds and Hydroponic Fodder as Feed Additives to Produce Premium Authentic Japanese Style Beef

Spoitz Inc. has designed this project along with university collaborators at Thompson Rivers University and Kwantlen Polytechnic University to use genomics to better understand the impact of finishing diets on premium beef cattle (Wagyu). Performance data (weight gain and feed intake), meat characteristics, and methane emission will be correlated with the microbial ecology of cattle rumen fluid in this multidisciplinary research project. This project was awarded by Genome BC for their Genesolve program   

https://www.cascadiaseaweed.com/

Cascadia Seaweed, a seaweed company with farms located around Vancouver Island, BC, is aiming to become the largest North American ocean-based cultivator of seaweed. The extensive coastline of British Columbia provides a fantastic opportunity for seaweed cultivation, assuming appropriate end-products for the biomass can be identified.  Spoitz Inc. is working with Cascadia to develop seaweed-based products for two markets: Agri Feed and Food.

(1) Evaluation of Pacific Farmed Seaweed as Value-Add Components of Cattle Feed

Spoitz Inc. is leading the development of Agri Feed for Cascadia, specifically investigating the potential benefits of incorporating seaweed into the diet of beef cattle. Given that the world will require between 60-70% more animal products by 2050 to accommodate the growing human population, the livestock industry must explore outside typical land-based agriculture products for animal feed. Looking beyond grain- and grass-based feedstuffs, seaweed has received recent attention as a high benefit component of forage rations. Furthermore, certain species of seaweed have been shown to reduce enteric methane production in ruminants (cattle and sheep) with limited inclusion during animal trials.

(2) Determination of Nutritional Components and Potential Hazards of Seaweed in Food Products

Spoitz Inc. is responsible for measurement and interpretation of chemical analyses of seaweed-based food ingredients developed by Cascadia. The complex nutritional profile of seaweed means a number of biologically relevant components may be present in appreciable quantities in different species. Still, the accumulation of hazardous heavy metals has also been linked with seaweed.  Spoitz Inc. has developed a streamlined method for evaluating the benefits and risks of new seaweed ingredients.

The BC Bud Co., a cannabis company based in Vancouver, BC, is focused on producing high-quality luxury branded products for sale throughout Canada. Spoitz Inc. is working with BC Bud Co. to develop and oversee the production of a new organic line of cannabis-infused beverages (Buds beverages). Through collaboration with licensed manufacturers these beverages will be launched in Q1 2022.