Reading Time: 2 minutes About 40 farms are planning to open their gates and welcome the public in “Open Farm Days,” a provincially sponsored initiative next month. “I’m really encouraged to see Alberta Ag kind of getting on board with current consumer trends,” said Rachel Herbert, one of the owners at Trail’s End Beef near Nanton, one of the […] Read more
Participating farms welcome Open Farm Days event
Growing Forward 2 funding includes money for barley research
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian barley industry recently got $8-million worth of good news when federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced investment funding for a Barley National Research Cluster led by the Alberta Barley Commission. “Innovation of course is critical to a competitive industry,” Ritz said during the announcement following a crop walk event at the Lacombe Research […] Read more
Alberta’s mandatory cattle age verification under review
Alberta’s mandatory cattle age-verification regulations will be under the microscope, said John Brown, executive director of the Livestock Research and Extension Branch of Alberta Agriculture. Brown said results-based budgeting means government departments review what they’re doing and what value they provide for Albertans. That will affect the program since that in January, the federal government […] Read more
Agriculture escapes worst of flooding
Reading Time: 2 minutes The impact of flooding on Alberta’s agriculture industry isn’t expected to be severe. “It is early. I would say at this point we don’t have any reports of catastrophic damage to crops and livestock,” said Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson. “I’m sure there will be cases where there is some damage but for the most part, […] Read more
Insured farmers with flood losses have options
Agriculture Financial Services Corporation says insurance coverage for crop losses won’t kick in till harvest
Reading Time: < 1 minute The impact of the flooding in southern Alberta won’t likely be known until harvest time. There are insurance programs affected producers can access if their post-harvest yields aren’t up to snuff, said Doug Dueck, Agriculture Financial Services Corporation’s (AFSC) area manager for the south region of the province. “Flooding is not spot loss, but flooding […] Read moreCalgary Co-op CEO challenges the meat and egg industries
Reading Time: 2 minutes If the customer is always right, then Alberta’s meat and egg producers have some work to do, according to one of Calgary’s largest grocers. In a keynote address to the recent Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency’s FutureFare conference, Calgary Co-op CEO Deane Collinson said his customers are not getting the type and quality they want. […] Read more
EPIC plant has already started breaking eggs
Reading Time: 2 minutes Production is underway at a new egg-breaking plant in a former Alpha Milk plant in Lethbridge. Bruce Forbes, CEO of Egg Processing Innovations Cooperative (EPIC), outlined operations at the refurbished plant for attendees at the recent Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency’s (ALMA) FutureFare conference in Red Deer. Forbes was approached to take the helm of […] Read more
Opening the plant doors via video for curious consumers a good step: AFAC
Reading Time: 2 minutes An Alberta organization is welcoming the American Meat Institute’s “Glass Walls” project. “We should have done this years ago,” said Heini Hehli, chair of Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC). The “Glass Walls” project (http://animalhandling.org) posted a beef packing plant video online in 2012 and added a pork video in May 2013. The videos feature narration […] Read more
XL Foods Inc. beef recall was avoidable: Report
Panel finds ‘relaxed attitude’ towards mandatory procedures amongst plant management, CFIA staff in Brooks
Reading Time: 3 minutes It was preventable. That was the conclusion of the independent expert panel’s review of last fall’s massive beef recall of beef from the former XL Foods meat-processing plant at Brooks. The panel also found a “weak food safety culture” and “relaxed attitude” at the plant, now operated by JBS. On June 5 in the House […] Read moreCanadian Bison Association creating national registry
Reading Time: 2 minutes A national bison registry is being created — although there may not be a stampede of owners registering their herds. Efforts to create a registry go back to the 1980s, but the Canadian Bison Association decided to move forward after more than 100 producers said they would register their herd, said executive director Terry Kremeniuk. […] Read more
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