Livestock

The executive director of the Dairy Farmers of Canada has been elected president of the International Dairy Federation. Richard Doyle, the DFC’s Ottawa-based executive director, was named to a four-year term as IDF president, succeeding Jim Begg, director general of Dairy UK. The election was held Tuesday during the World Dairy Summit, which ends Friday […] Read more

The host venue for Canadian Western Agribition and the Western Canada Farm Progress Show has been re-rebranded. Regina Exhibition Park, which was rebranded Ipsco Place in 2006 when the steel firm bought the naming rights to the 102-acre park, became Evraz Place effective Wednesday. The park’s latest rebranding follows the renaming of Ipsco, the largest […] Read more

Makers of canned pet foods can expect a “major” increase in the price of cans in 2009, forcing them to either eat the cost or raise prices, Menu Foods warns in its latest quarterly report. The beleaguered Toronto pet food maker is in what it calls a “rebuilding year,” following its involvement in a major […] Read more

First-quarter profits are up for feed maker Ridley Inc., but no thanks to its feed operations, which took nearly a 10 per cent drop in sales from the same time last year. The feed company, with headquarters in Winnipeg and in Minnesota, posted net earnings of $2.93 million on $169.3 million in revenue in its […] Read more

Officials from South Korea are scheduled to come to Canada later this month and visit beef slaughterhouses as Korea reconsiders its five-year-old ban on Canadian beef and cattle. The Koreans’ visit will allow them “to see firsthand the effectiveness of Canada’s food safety and animal health safeguards,” the Canadian government said in a release Monday. […] Read more

Prince Edward Island’s government says an audit of the ill-fated NOFG pork plant shows the “original work” by the previous government on the file led to the plant’s failure. NOFG (Natural Organic Food Group), a Quebec company, handed the facility’s keys over to the P.E.I. government early this year, after the province called in its […] Read more

Canada’s 13th case of BSE, a Fraser Valley dairy cow from B.C., likely picked up the disease from its heifer ration, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. In its report Thursday on the investigation into Case 13, CFIA said the five-year-old Holstein cow, which was confirmed in June as BSE-positive, ate feed from a […] Read more

Alberta’s agriculture department has put up three prize packages of products and services worth $10,000 each for “outstanding” ideas from farmers for improving their farm businesses. The province on Friday launched what it’s dubbed the Best Practices Awards and has set a deadline of 4 p.m. on Jan. 8, 2009 for applications from eligible entrants. […] Read more

The man in charge of port terminals for Canada’s biggest grain company is now its vice-president of livestock and feed services. Bill Mooney, the director of terminals for Viterra, takes over the new post effective immediately and will operate out of the company’s Okotoks, Alta. office, Viterra announced Thursday. Mooney has been in the grain […] Read more

The head of the research arm of the American Meat Institute will be the chief food safety officer for Maple Leaf Foods. Randy Huffman will take his new post Jan. 5, reporting to the Toronto meat processing giant’s CEO, Michael McCain. Huffman is currently president of the AMI Foundation, the research, education and information wing […] Read more