Reading Time: < 1 minute Nineteen farm families from southern Alberta were honoured with BMO Farm Family Awards at this year’s Calgary Stampede. The awards acknowledge the family’s commitment to agriculture and the community, and also showcase those who take an innovative approach to growing their business, demonstrate a commitment to traditional western values, and maintain an exceptional standard of […] Read more
Nineteen southern Alberta farms honoured by Stampede
BCCA connecting ranchers, haulers in wildfire areas
Livestock producers needing to move animals out of wildfire zones in British Columbia’s Interior are being asked to contact the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association. The BCCA, on its website, said it’s helping to co-ordinate haulers with producers who need to evacuate livestock. “With closures of highways and evacuation orders, permits are needed to re-enter evacuated areas […] Read more
India’s top court suspends ban on trade in cattle for slaughter
New Delhi | Reuters — India’s Supreme Court suspended on Tuesday a government ban on the trade of cattle for slaughter, a boost for the multi-billion dollar beef and leather industries mostly run by members of the Muslim minority. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in May decreed that markets could only trade cattle […] Read more
Saskatchewan sets new cougar, bear trapping seasons
Saskatchewan has set up a new cougar season for trappers, plus a southern expansion of its black bear trapping season, in part to help limit livestock predation. The province on Wednesday announced a new “trapping-only” cougar season will open Oct. 15, 2017 and close March 15, 2018. It also announced a new “black bear opportunity” […] Read more
Ontario processor fined for faux-kosher cheese
An Ontario food processing company has been slapped with $25,000 in fines for labelling non-kosher cheese as kosher, in the first Canadian case of its kind to get to a provincial court. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Wednesday reported Creation Foods Co. of Woodbridge had pled guilty June 22 in the Ontario Court of […] Read more
EU, Japan officials seal trade agreement
Brussels | Reuters — Japan and the European Union should agree on Thursday to a free trade pact that could be completed within months, after senior officials removed final snags to a political deal intended as a signal to U.S. President Donald Trump. “We ironed out the few remaining differences,” European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom […] Read more
Alberta farmland value growth second highest in Canada
Taber and Lethbridge held the highest average farmland values in 2016, reaching over $5,800 per acre
Reading Time: 2 minutes While the rate of increase appears to be slowing, average farmland values in Alberta continue to rise. “Farmland values rose rapidly in the 1970s but were met with a substantial decline in the 1980s,” says Aaron Lawson, program assistant, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry (AF). “For the most part, prices recovered by the mid-’90s, and farmland […] Read more
Strong meat demand spells bright future for goat industry
Demand is far outstripping supply for Canadian goat meat — and enterprising producers can capitalize on this trend
Reading Time: 2 minutes When Myrna Gisler moved back to the family farm near Innisfail, her parents decided it was time to branch out into something a little different — ostriches. That lasted all of two weeks. “I didn’t want a thing to do with them,” said Gisler with a laugh. “Those things are evil. They’re miserable creatures. I […] Read more
Equine anemia turns up in some Manitoba horses
A viral horse disease that’s more prevalent further west in Canada has returned to Manitoba for the first time in recent memory, as horses from two municipalities have been found to caught the virus in the past four weeks. Equine infectious anemia (EIA) was confirmed in horses from a property in the RM of St. […] Read more
Federal response tightened for chronic wasting disease
Canadian ranchers raising cervids such as elk, deer and moose will soon have to get in on certification programs before they can be eligible for any federal help in the event of a chronic wasting disease (CWD) outbreak. One of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) family of nervous system diseases, such as BSE in cattle […] Read more
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