Livestock
A “virtual centre” to serve as a brain trust for research into poultry behaviour and welfare will be based at the University of Guelph. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), the Poultry Industry Council and the Canadian Poultry Research Council chose Guelph from seven schools across Canada looking to house their joint initiative, the university said […] Read more
Home picked for “virtual” poultry welfare centre
Use two provinces’ deal as trade template: UPA, OFA
Negotiators working toward a Canada-wide agreement on internal trade (AIT) should look to last week’s trade agreement between Quebec and Ontario on how to handle agricultural concerns, the two provinces’ main ag groups say. Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) voiced their support last week for the Quebec-Ontario […] Read more
West Nile reaches B.C.’s horses
On the heels of British Columbia’s first-ever human cases of West Nile virus, the province has now confirmed the disease for the first time in horses. A horse in the Fraser Valley and a horse in the south Okanagan region have been confirmed as infected with West Nile virus. Test results are pending on another […] Read more
Man. ag minister adds finance to portfolio
Manitoba’s agriculture minister and deputy premier Rosann Wowchuk will spend at least a month as the province’s interim finance minister during the race to replace Premier Gary Doer. Doer, who announced in late August he will step down as premier and as leader of Manitoba’s New Democrats to become Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., on […] Read more
Alta. animal health program drawing urban interest
Potential students in the University of Alberta’s new animal health program so far appear to come more from an urban background than an agricultural one. That observation of student interest in the U of A’s new B.Sc. program in animal health led to a new course focused on house pets rather than production livestock this […] Read more
Angus Wins Post-Stampede Carcass Competition
Reading Time: 2 minutes “The biggest rib eye is not what the industry needs at all. I’ve always preached that, and I wrote this competition based on the wishes of consumers and restaurant chefs.” Lloyd Halstead of Carbon, Alta., has emerged as the overall winner of the Calgary Stampede’s extremely competitive 2009 Carcass Competition. Halstead’s 15-month-old Angus steer beat […] Read more
Grazing mentorship offered
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Sustainable Grazing Mentorship Program (SGMP) assists producers in improving their forage operations through training. Experienced grazing mentors work directly with producers for either eight or 16 hours to develop a grazing plan tailored to the needs of the producer. A grazing mentor is a respected producer peer with extensive grazing management experience and knowledge. […] Read more
New BIC website for producers
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Beef Information Centre (BIC) has launched a new website with information targeted toward beef producers and farm media. BIC says the primary objective is to clearly illustrate how BIC invests producer dollars in its three key areas – maximizing the total industry value through the optimization of carcass values; expanding key markets and market […] Read more
Beef-In-A-Bag System Allows Use Of Lower-Grade Cuts
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Beef Information Centre (BIC) has helped develop a new “retort pouch packaging” system for both retail and foodservice use. Retorting uses heat and pressure to cook vacuum sealed prepackaged meat. Since the meat is cooked in the package, the package must be strong enough to withstand relatively high temperatures (100-130 degrees C). Retort processing […] Read more
Throughput Key To Minimizing Production Cost
Reading Time: 4 minutes A relatively small deviation in several parameters may easily add up to a reduction in income of $4-5 per hog. On 500 pigs per week, that’s up to $130,000 in lost margin each year. Bernie Peet is president of Pork Chain Consulting Ltd. of Lacombe, Alberta, and editor of Western Hog Journal. (First of two […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
