Livestock

Quebec’s farm cash receipts took a jump of over nine per cent in 2008 compared to the previous year, the province’s statistical agency reported Monday. L’Institut de la statistique du Quebec (ISQ) said Quebec farmers wrapped up their 2008 with farm cash receipts of $7.5 billion, up 9.3 per cent ($637.6 million) from 2007 levels. […] Read more

The Canadian arm of agri-food giant Cargill has pledged $30,000 per year for the next three years to support the National 4-H Citizenship Seminar. The seminar, held annually in Ottawa since 1972, gives senior 4-H delegates the opportunity to travel to the capitol and learn about “governance, political procedures, and the rights and responsibilities of […] Read more

A nationwide research network on animal embryos, the first of its kind in the world, is officially funded and connected with a goal of better understanding how assisted reproductive technologies and maternal features affect cattle and swine embryos. The research network, budgeted for $9 million for the first five years, of which $4.8 million comes […] Read more

Directives ordering Ontario Pork to change itself starting next month from a mandatory to optional hog marketing agency are now on hold, pending appeals from a number of hog producers in the province. The Ontario government’s Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal has slapped a continuing stay on last October’s order from the Ontario […] Read more

Three major environmental groups say the Alberta government’s planned new process for putting together land for roads or utility corridors essentially gives the province “unfettered powers to take land.” The Council of Canadians, Greenpeace and the Sierra Club say the province’s Land Assembly Project Area Act, which was introduced in the legislature March 2 after […] Read more

Provincial funding for agriculture research in Alberta would be administered through one “bioindustries” Crown corporation in a new framework on its way through the legislature. The proposed Alberta Research and Innovation Act, introduced March 18, would merge the province’s 10 existing “research and innovation entities” into four sector-based Crown corporations and an advisory body, the […] Read more

Just nine properties in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley remain quarantined out of 45 that saw restrictions imposed following the appearance of avian influenza on two Abbotsford-area poultry farms. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Thursday it had removed restrictions on 22 farms that had completed a 21-day surveillance and testing period. The testing period followed […] Read more

The federal government’s cull breeding swine program will now include a wider window of culling, thus allowing some producers to qualify for new or additional payments. Originally, under the $50 million program, culls of breeding swine between Nov. 1, 2007 and Nov. 30, 2008 had qualified for per-head payments to eligible hog producers. However, Agriculture […] Read more