Livestock

Alberta’s protected heritage rangelands will be in a class by themselves as the province moves to consolidate its park legislation. And the new legislation, which was posted Wednesday for public consultation between now and July 17, will require the province to post mandatory advance public notice for establishing, removing or changing boundaries of provincial heritage […] Read more

A Moose Jaw, Sask. pork packing plant that’s sat shut since 2006 may provide a much-needed outlet for the province’s hogs by the end of this year. Richmond, B.C.-based meat firm Donald’s Fine Foods and its specialty pork packing arm, Britco Pork of Langley, B.C., has wrapped up the purchase of the former Moose Jaw […] Read more

A Montreal phramaceutical company focused on functional foods and nutraceuticals plans to work with one of the world’s biggest dairy firms on new technologies to cut cholesterol levels in dairy products. Micropharma Ltd. has picked up a US$8 million equity investment from the research arm of French dairy giant Danone, as part of a partnership […] Read more

A non-profit market development and research group run by players in Alberta’s crop industry has been tapped to manage an $8 million pot of funding to develop new and/or better livestock feeds. The Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA) last week announced the Lacombe-based Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund (ACIDF) has been chosen to leverage […] Read more

In a bid to boost age-verification of the province’s beef cattle herd, the Alberta government is working with livestock supply retailers on a $15 million plan to help cow-calf producers cover the costs of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. The province’s new three-year Age-Verification Incentive Program, announced Monday to get underway July 1, will take […] Read more

A new joint research cluster focused on hog producers’ priorities will get the bulk of a $15 million federal funding package for hog industry development. As with other commodity sectors’ research clusters announced in recent months, the hog cluster will see funding flow from the federal Agri-Science Clusters program — in this case, $9.5 million, […] Read more

A pilot project to help block animal health problems from becoming cross-Canada outbreaks and trade barriers has picked up federal funding to move to round-the-clock operation. The West Hawk Lake (WHL) Zoning Initiative, a government/industry project spearheaded by the Canadian Animal Health Coalition, a Guelph-based non-profit organization for the livestock sector, will get up to […] Read more

A panel of three diplomats has been named at the World Trade Organization to hear the complaints from Canada and Mexico over the U.S. government’s mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) on grocery stores’ meat and produce. The WTO on Monday named Christian Haberli, a Swiss diplomat who has sat on several WTO dispute settlement panels and […] Read more