Livestock
Reading Time: < 1 minute Low birth weights and cold are the main causes of lamb deaths, says Dan Morrical, sheep extension specialist at Iowa State University. Morrical told a sheep symposium her that single lambs should weight about seven per cent of the ewe’s body weight at birth, said Morrical. Twins should weigh about six-and-ahalf per cent, and triplets […] Read more
Tips For Caring For Those Newborn Lambs
Good Management Reduces Lambing Losses
Reading Time: 2 minutes The dictum applies to many things, including lambing losses – prevention is the best cure, says a producer who runs a flock of 2,000 ewes near Wetaskiwin. Stefan Kaiser told a recent sheep symposium here that good management protocols are the best methods of keeping lambs alive. Maintaining biosecurity is one of the most important […] Read more
Post-Mortem Can Tell Tale Of Dead
Reading Time: 2 minutes “I would encourage you to talk to your vet and ask them to go through the postmortem with you” Illeana Wenger It’s bad enough losing a lamb, but losing it without knowing the reason is worse. “You need to know exactly why your lambs are dying,” Ileana Wenger, a veterinarian and sheep rancher from Bowden […] Read more
Utah Prof Urges Rethink Of Ranching Philosophy
Reading Time: 3 minutes A better understanding of grazing animal behaviour could make ranching profitable again, says Fred Provenza, a professor from Utah State University. “I’m not a person who hates fossil fuels, I like them. But we’ve used them as a crutch,” said Provenza. “It’s been great, but it’s costly to do that. So, we have to think […] Read more
Beef Packers Looking For Government Aid
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian beef packers are asking the federal government for an annual payment of $26 million to cover the cost of disposing of risky cattle parts under stringent health rules aimed at preventing the spread of mad cow disease. Packers want $31.70 for each animal over the age of 30 months to cover the cost of […] Read more
Reducing Vaccination Reactions
Reading Time: 3 minutes With more and more vaccines now given subcutaneously and especially with vaccines using oil-based adjuvant, reactions are not uncommon. The adjuvants are designed to protect the vaccine and give a much higher immune response but reactions in the form of lumps are an expected albeit undesirable result. As many of the pharmaceutical reps will tell […] Read more
The Hungry Man And The Garbage Can
Reading Time: 3 minutes In October I travelled with my family to Quebec where our son was married. What a blessing to have four generations of the Schoepp family fly safely to celebrate this occasion. The leaves were in full colour, the meal was incredible, the wedding was lovely and the family time was a riot. All was as […] Read more
WTO panel will hear Canada’s COOL challenge
The World Trade Organization has set up a dispute settlement panel to hear Canada’s challenge of U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL). Canada’s first request last month for a WTO panel was, as expected, blocked by the U.S. government. But the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body on Thursday accepted Canada’s second request and a WTO member such […] Read more
Saputo, Kraft to appeal cheese ruling: report
Two major Canadian cheesemakers plan to appeal last month’s Federal Court ruling that effectively shot down their challenge of new federal standards for cheese made in and imported to Canada, according to La Terre de Chez Nous. The Quebec farmers’ newspaper in its Nov. 12 issue quoted Kraft Canada spokesperson Lyne Galia as saying the […] Read more
Feed fish to people, not pigs: UBC study
A new study suggests a novel approach to conserving the world’s fish stocks: stop feeding fish to farm animals. Thirty-six per cent (30 million tons) of the world’s total annual fish catch is currently ground into fishmeal and oil to feed farmed pigs, chickens and fish. Pigs and chickens alone consume six times as much […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
