Livestock
Hours after announcing his resignation from his post and his seat in the province’s assembly, Claude Bechard, Quebec’s minister of agriculture, food and fisheries, died Tuesday in Quebec City at age 41. Bechard, the MNA for Kamouraska-Temiscouata in Quebec’s Bas-St-Laurent region, had been undergoing treatments for pancreatic cancer since 2008. According to a statement from […] Read more
Quebec agriculture minister Claude Bechard, 41
Ex-OFA director now assistant to Ont. ag minister
Southwestern Ontario MPP Maria Van Bommel, a former board member with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, has been named parliamentary assistant to the province’s ag, food and rural affairs minister. Van Bommel, the MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex since 2003, returned to the ag file last week in a shuffle of assistants’ portfolios by Premier Dalton McGuinty. […] Read more
Klassen: Higher corn weighs on feeder futures
Feeder cattle futures were under pressure last week as December corn futures moved above the psychological $4.50 level. Top-quality steers weighing just over 900 pounds were selling for $106 in southern Alberta; 825-pound steers reached up to $114. Basis levels in Western Canada strengthened by $3 to $6 last week as auction market prices were […] Read more
SW Ont. meat packer backed for expansions
A regional meat processor in southwestern Ontario’s Huron County will get rural development funding for more smokehouses and cookhouses and improved production. Metzger Meats Products, which processes beef, lamb, pork, chicken and turkey at Hensall, about 55 km north of London, will get $350,000 from the province’s Rural Economic Development program for its planned expansions. […] Read more
Ontario names new deputy ag minister
Ontario’s deputy minister of community safety will become the province’s new top ag bureaucrat, effective Tuesday. Premier Dalton McGuinty on Wednesday announced John Burke as the province’s new deputy minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs starting Sept. 7. Burke has served as the deputy in several provincial ministries, including municipal affairs and housing, and […] Read more
Cargill to consolidate meat processing at Guelph
Agrifood giant Cargill has announced plans to consolidate its Ontario “case-ready” meat processing work at Guelph and shut its Toronto-area plant at Etobicoke early next year. Cargill Meat Solutions, the company’s meat processing wing, didn’t specify a date other than the “spring of 2011,” but said Monday the move will affect about 600 unionized employees […] Read more
Klassen: Feeder cattle futures make contract highs
Feeder cattle futures made new contract highs last week due to tight available supplies and stronger fed cattle prices. While it is not unusual to see a correction after a surge higher, prices are expected to be well supported into the fall period. U.S. feeder cattle were $1 to $3 higher last week on average, […] Read more
Ont. goats’-milk cheesemaker picks up more funding
A second provincial economic development program has backed renovation and retooling at an eastern Ontario goats’-milk dairy processor. Mariposa Dairy Ltd., based at Lindsay, about 40 km west of Peterborough, will get $208,000 from the province’s Rural Economic Development Program for expansion work with which the company expects to create “up to 21” new jobs. […] Read more
Retired U of M ag dean Jim Elliot, 72
Funeral services are planned in Ottawa Thursday (Sept. 2) for retired University of Manitoba agriculture dean Jim Elliot, who’s credited with the “physical renewal” of ag facilities at the university and boosting ag research funding. Elliot, who joined the agricultural and food sciences faculty at the U of M as an animal science professor in […] Read more
Calgary Firm To Study Additive Use – for Aug. 30, 2010
Reading Time: < 1 minute Canadian Bio-Systems of Calgary has received $271,177 from the National Research Council to study dietary nucleotides for and how much of them should be used in feeds to boost growth and fight disease. The company plans to put the funds toward study to “gain a better understanding of the optimal level of supplementation of dietary […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
