Sask., Man. hog agencies merge on marketing

The Manitoba Pork Marketing Co-op and Saskatchewan’s SPI Marketing Group have set up a new joint company to handle marketing, procurement, settlement, insurance and risk management. The new company, h@ms (short for “hog administrative marketing services”), is to be based in Winnipeg with a satellite office in Saskatoon, the two producer-owned agencies said in a […] Read more

NFU, R-CALF link arms against NAFTA

Seen by many for years as a protectionist thorn in the sides of Canadian cattle producers, the U.S. ranchers’ group R-CALF claims to have picked up new defenders in Canada’s National Farmers Union (NFU). The two groups were among several meeting earlier this week in Billings, Montana at a two-day conference hosted by the Western […] Read more


Visiting pets’ food exempted from BSE rules

Some regulatory housekeeping in Canada’s BSE-related animal health regulations will exempt U.S. visitors’ pets and pet food from Canada’s enhanced feed ban. That means U.S. residents who legally bring their pets over the border into Canada may now also import pet food, pet chews and pet treats that are meant to be fed to the […] Read more

Menu Foods posts smaller year-end loss

Customers of beleaguered Canadian pet food maker Menu Foods appear to have returned to the company in 2008 after its massive product recall the previous year. The Toronto-based income trust on Wednesday reported a net loss of $6.81 million on $260.6 million in sales for the year ending Dec. 31. That’s up from a $62.13 […] Read more


Editors’ Picks: USDA boss wants stricter COOL

The U.S. government’s relaxed rules for mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL), which led Canada to set aside a planned trade challenge, have earned a frosty reception from the incoming U.S. administration. President Barack Obama’s agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, said in a conference call Tuesday with U.S. consumer groups, farm groups and others that he plans to […] Read more

Saudi Arabia reopens to Canadian boneless beef

Saudi Arabia has agreed to resume imports of Canadian boneless beef from young cattle as part of an agreement to discuss broader access to the country’s “lucrative” beef market, federal officials said Tuesday. Canada’s Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced the agreement Tuesday in Riyadh after meeting with Abdullah Bin Ahmed Zeinal Alireza, the Saudi minister […] Read more


Alta. ranchers urged to insure feed supplies

With “large pockets” of Alberta’s central, northern and Peace River farming areas sitting on “extremely low” soil moisture headed toward spring, the provincial ag insurer is urging ranchers to consider hay and pasture insurance. Soil conditions have many cattle producers hanging onto their hay bales and declining opportunities to sell, provincial forage specialist Bjorn Berg […] Read more

Commons ag committee to run own listeria probe

The House of Commons’ standing committee on agriculture and agri-food plans to conduct its own parallel investigation of last summer’s outbreak of listeriosis linked to a Toronto deli meat plant. The committee’s announcement Friday follows Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s appointment last month of Sheila Weatherill, the former CEO of Edmonton’s Capital Health, as the head […] Read more


Cattle, hog, sheep inventories all drop: StatsCan

Farm inventories of cattle, hogs and sheep all declined between Jan. 1, 2008 and Jan. 1, 2009, reflecting market uncertainty and rising input costs, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday. Hog inventories were down 10.2 per cent to 12.4 million, the federal statistics agency said. Cattle producers reported 13.2 million head as of Jan. 1 this year, […] Read more

ALMA names representatives for five committees

Reading Time: < 1 minute The Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency has tapped into the province’s livestock and meat production talent pool for advisory committees to guide the agency’s work. “When I announced the strategy and the creation of ALMA, I promised that industry would remain the driver,” provincial Agriculture Minister George Groeneveld said in a release announcing the new […] Read more