The Canadian business of Scottish soup and condiment maker Baxters Food Group is back in Canadian hands, including private, public and labour-sponsored Quebec investors. Provincial venture capital firm Investissement Quebec and labour-sponsored Fonds de solidarite FTQ and Fondaction announced Tuesday they would each put up $8 million, plus an unspecified amount from investors led by […] Read more
Soup maker Baxters sells Canadian arm
Olymel to pick up Ontario chicken processor Pinty’s
The meat packing arm of agrifood co-operative La Coop federee is set to boost its stakes in the Ontario packaged chicken and appetizer markets with a deal for Pinty’s Delicious Foods. Olymel announced Thursday it will buy Burlington, Ont.-based Pinty’s, including its three southern Ontario chicken slaughter and processing operations at Port Colborne, Paris and […] Read more
Transport agency orders Hudson Bay Railway to start repairs
The Canadian Transportation Agency has ordered the current owners of the Hudson Bay Railway to get repair work underway by July 3 at the latest. The CTA — the quasi-judicial tribunal and regulator for the Canadian transport sector — on Wednesday granted a request filed by an unnamed representative of Manitoba’s provincial opposition New Democrats […] Read more
The surprising hazard lurking at your feet
Slips and trips are commonplace ingredients in a large number of workplace accidents
Reading Time: 2 minutes Working safely with equipment gets a lot of attention — and rightly so — when it comes to preventing accidents on the farm. But there are also major hazards lurking by your feet, and this, too, is something you should think about before starting any building project on the farm. Falls account for one in […] Read more
Opening up use of preg check ultrasound
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Alberta Veterinary Medical Association is again surveying its members on whether registered veterinary technologists should be allowed to conduct beef cattle pregnancy detection using ultrasound. In 2012, the association’s food animal advisory committee recommended such a move, but ABVMA members were not supportive. Last year, the committee again recommended allowing veterinary technologists to use […] Read more
Saputo to build new Vancouver-area processing plant
Canadian dairy giant Saputo plans on further “maximizing its manufacturing footprint” in Canada in the next few years, starting with a new $240 million Vancouver-area processing plant at Port Coquitlam. The “state-of-the-art” plant is expected to be built within the next three years and commissioned in fiscal 2021, the company said in its fiscal 2018 […] Read more
Tired of providing a hay lunch for the neighbourhood?
Hay yards are magnets for elk and deer, but 3D fencing can be a lower-cost way to keep them out
Reading Time: 2 minutes A long winter coupled with a late and dry start to spring has stretched feed supplies across Alberta. Which means any loss of hay to wildlife last winter was especially painful. To avoid that grief — or at least lessen it — many producers on the Prairies have turned to three-dimensional fencing. Unlike typical fencing, […] Read more
Quebec ag minister won’t run again
With just under four months before the province’s next election, Quebec’s current minister of agriculture, food and fisheries won’t be in the running. Laurent Lessard ended weeks of speculation Friday when he announced he won’t seek a sixth term as the MNA for Lotbiniere-Frontenac. In a statement on Facebook, Lessard, 55, thanked his constituents for […] Read more
Alberta 4-H’ers medal at national science fair
Reading Time: < 1 minute A trio of young Albertans were medalists at the recent Canada-Wide Science Fair. About 2,500 students from across the country compete to get into the fair, with just over 400 chosen for the event, which was held in Ottawa this year. Three Albertans won bronze at the intermediate level — Lara and Liesl Stewart along […] Read more
Mandatory equine infectious anemia testing being considered
Reading Time: < 1 minute An equine infectious anemia (EIA) working group is proposing improvements to the current program for controlling the federally reportable disease. One of its key recommendations is that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency implement mandatory EIA testing for certain movements of horses in Western Canada. EIA can be difficult to detect, as loss of co-ordination may […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
