By Maude Blouin, Knowledge Transfer Officer, Novalait
On a cold day in early winter, microbiology and food science students at Université Laval’s Centre de recherche en sciences et technologie du lait (STELA) warmed up with dairy cows. But what could university students working in dairy processing be doing at the Centre de recherche en sciences animales de Deschambault (CRSAD)?
CRSAD is a research center made up of several farm buildings, one of which is dedicated to docile, inquisitive dairy cows. Photo credit: Hugo Dufour
A half-day of on-the-job training
They weren’t there by chance. Researchers and students affiliated with CRSAD were waiting for them for a half-day training session on dairy production. The aim: to make the milk processing students aware of the realities of the farm and the factors that can affect the quality of milk, the raw material used in their research.
Theory before practice!
After a lunch with colleagues, Daniel Rico, CRSAD’s Scientific Director, explained to the students what the research center is all about, and the different lines of research pursued by the affiliated teams. The students were interested to learn more about research into animal welfare, adaptation to climate change and animal nutrition.
Rachel Gervais, Professor of Animal Science at Université Laval, then presented one of her research projects on the effects of dairy cow nutrition on the properties of milk used for processing into cheese and butter. The project, supported by Novalait, aims to add value to non-fat milk solids, an important industry need. The students were amazed by the quantity of food ingested daily by a cow—1,000 times the portion presented on a plate!
A typical plate for a dairy cow, including forages and concentrates. In one day, a cow consumes 1,000 times this portion! Photo credit: Hugo Dufour
The cow floor
Theory is interesting, but the STELA students were just waiting for one thing: to visit the cows! This was the second part of the activity. Rachel Gervais guided the students through the barn housing some of CRSAD’s dairy cows. The students saw the facilities and had the opportunity to talk with the researcher to better understand the management practices of a dairy herd, in particular how these practices could influence the quality of the milk received at the plant. It was a wonderful moment shared between students and researchers, producers and processors, humans and dairy cows.
The CRSAD training workshop gave STELA dairy processing students an insight into the realities of on-farm production. Photo credit: Hugo Dufour
Back to reality
After this half-day training session, the future highly qualified workforce is now aware of the issues and challenges facing the dairy industry. These students better understand the importance of collaboration between production and processing to produce quality multidisciplinary research. Congratulations to the CRSAD and STELA teams for the organization and success of this activity!
