Economic churn across Canada from the global COVID-19 pandemic didn’t faze the country’s real estate market — nor its farmland market in particular — in 2020, according to the latest review from the federal farm lending agency. Farm Credit Canada on Monday released its 2020 Farmland Values report, showing an average increase of 5.4 per […] Read more
Farmland appreciation continues through pandemic year
FCC report puts Canada's average land value increase at 5.4 per cent
Canada clears step toward ‘negligible risk’ BSE status
OIE delegates to vote in late May, CFIA says
The international committee that reviews countries’ requests for animal health status on specific diseases has called for Canada to level up on its status for BSE. The Scientific Commission of the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health), which last met virtually over Feb. 1-12, has recommended to OIE delegates that Canada’s application seeking “negligible risk” […] Read more
U.N. counts cost of ‘man-made’ famines
US$400 for a plate of rice and beans?
New York | Reuters — Nearly 30 years ago a malnourished two-year-old girl died in front of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield at a refugee camp in northern Uganda. Two days ago U.N. food chief David Beasley met a starving five-month-old girl at a hospital in Yemen — she died on Thursday. […] Read more
‘Buttergate’ has dairy sector on the defensive
Hard-to-spread butter suddenly becomes an international controversy on what Canadian dairy farmers feed their cows
Reading Time: 2 minutes It started with a few tweets and texts, but escalated into an issue that drew international attention — and a vow from the chair of Alberta Milk “to do better.” It began with people wondering why their butter no longer spread easily at room temperature before suddenly turning into a controversy over what dairy farmers […] Read more
No credit expected for farmers’ past work in new carbon market
Work on protocols for specific projects to begin this spring, department says
Draft regulations for Canada’s new carbon market show Canadian farmers won’t receive credit for removing any greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from the atmosphere prior to 2017. Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson on Friday announced the offset market, to be known as the Federal Greenhouse Gas Offset System. A 60-day public consultation period on draft regulations […] Read more
Second activist investor buys into Elanco
Reuters — Hedge fund Starboard Value LP has taken a stake in Elanco Animal Health and nominated three directors to the animal healthcare company’s board, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The WSJ report did not mention the size of Starboard’s stake in Elanco, which makes treatments for pets […] Read more
Farm cash receipts up in 2020
Crop receipts and direct payments up, livestock slightly lower
MarketsFarm — New data from Statistics Canada on Tuesday showed Canadian farm cash receipts went up in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, on the strength of rising crop prices and exports. The total value of farm cash receipts in the country totalled $71.7 billion in 2020, an 8.1 per cent increase from the previous year. […] Read more
Canada’s year-end cattle herd continues shrinking
Slaughter beat pre-pandemic pace in second half, StatsCan says
Year-over-year contraction continued for Canada’s cattle herd at the start of 2021, while newborn piglet counts kept Canada’s hog herd on the rise during the same period, according to Statistics Canada. StatsCan on Monday reported 11.2 million cattle on Canadian farms at Jan, 1, 2021 — down one per cent from the year-earlier date and […] Read more
Dairy farmers asked to pass on palm byproducts in rations, for now
Seek out other ingredients while hard-butter issue under review, DFC asks
Canadian dairy farmers whose feed rations include supplements made with palm byproducts are being asked to consider other options while consumer complaints over butter are probed more closely. Dairy Farmers of Canada on Thursday asked its farmer members to “consider alternatives to palm supplements” pending the outcome of a review of “issues that have been […] Read more
U.S. Senate confirms Vilsack as Biden’s ag secretary
Pandemic leaves USDA 'a lot of work to do'
Reuters — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Tom Vilsack to head the Department of Agriculture, returning the former Iowa governor to the job he held under ex-President Barack Obama. The 100-member Senate approved Vilsack 92-7. He needed a simple majority in the Democratic-controlled chamber to be confirmed. As secretary of the sprawling department, Vilsack […] Read more