Livestock

Provisions in the U.S. government’s final rule for mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL), published Monday, are expected to help keep cross-border livestock trade flowing. “These final regulations will help to address the concerns we’ve consistently raised with our American counterparts,” Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in a government release Monday. Specifically, Ritz and International Trade Minister […] Read more

Residents of Labrador’s north and south coast and straits will see an average increase of 10 per cent in provincial subsidies paid on a revised list of “more nutritious” foods shipped to them by air. The Newfoundland and Labrador government on Monday said it will boost the Air Foodlift Subsidy (AFS) rate to 80 per […] Read more

Ontario’s government will back a networking project that’s expected help the province’s food manufacturers and processors compete globally and train skilled staff. The province on Monday pledged $1.94 million from its Rural Economic Development program for the Food Sector Manufacturing Innovation Network project. The project will be run by the Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC), […] Read more

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has created a new market access secretariat, with which it expects to better co-ordinate the expansion of ag exports, particularly for Canada’s beleaguered cattle sector. The move was one of two pledges Friday from federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, along with a promise to pursue “commercially significant” access to international export […] Read more

Farms in flooded areas of British Columbia’s Fraser Valley and southwestern Vancouver Island are now eligible for provincial assistance to cover uninsurable losses. The province said Thursday it would approve disaster financial assistance (DFA) on eligible damages in the Juan de Fuca electoral area, Fraser Valley Regional District and the Sooke, Metchosin, Langford, Langley, Abbotsford, […] Read more

The U.S. government’s mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) for meat has so far been “quite effective” in squelching cross-border cattle trade, according to two well-known U.S. market analysts. Steve Meyer and Len Steiner, authors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) Daily Livestock Report, said in their commentary Wednesday that for the period from July 14 to […] Read more

The board of Ontario Pork has approved a temporary 10-cent-per-hog cut in the service levy fees hog producers pay. “For the time being producers will pay a reduced service levy fee from $1.75 to $1.65 per hog,” the pork marketing agency said in a release Tuesday, announcing its interim budget. The reduced fee took effect […] Read more

Nova Scotia’s environment minister has been sworn in as its agriculture minister in Premier Rodney MacDonald’s cabinet shuffle announced Wednesday. Mark Parent, the MLA for Kings North, takes over the agriculture portfolio from Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley MLA Brooke Taylor. Taylor, who owned and operated his own trucking business before becoming a Tory MLA in 1993, will […] Read more

The now-endangered Newfoundland Pony will be the subject of a new photo archive to preserve the memory of its role in rural development of the province. The Newfoundland and Labrador government announced Wednesday it will work with the Newfoundland Pony Society and Memorial University’s history department to compile a “photographic history” of the pony. The […] Read more