Livestock
Further price hikes and benefits from the restructuring of its meat business are expected to help Maple Leaf Foods recover from what’s so far been a cash-losing year. The Toronto food processing giant on Thursday posted a loss of $9.35 million on $1.36 billion in sales in its second quarter (Q2) ending June 30, down […] Read more
Maple Leaf faces $9M loss in Q2
Manitoba weanlings survive contract crisis: MPC
(Resource News International) — Despite speculation that hundreds of thousands of Manitoba weanling pigs would be euthanized over the spring and summer due to a crisis in the hog industry, an official with Manitoba Pork Council said relatively few piglets have been put down. The speculation had been triggered by reports in the early spring […] Read more
Beef centre names communications chief
Former Alberta Farmer Express editor Janet Kanters is the new stakeholder communications manager for the Beef Information Centre (BIC). BIC, with offices in Calgary and Mississauga, is the beef market development division of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. Kanters, the Alberta farm newspaper’s editor from June 2006 to November 2007, has previously worked for Alberta’s provincial […] Read more
NFU calls on feds to block Lakeside sale
A major beef packing plant sale that would create “one of the most concentrated markets in the North American food system” shouldn’t be allowed to go ahead without major concessions, the National Farmers Union urged Tuesday. U.S. meat giant Tyson Foods announced last month it will sell its Lakeside Farm Industries plant at Brooks, Alta., […] Read more
Man. manure research group names new chief
Don Dixon, the retired head of the Manitoba agriculture department’s crops branch, has been named chairman of the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative. Dixon, who recently retired from the provincial government after 30 years, began work with the department as the provincial apiarist and held several management positions before heading the crops branch based at […] Read more
Maple Leaf’s Burlington pork plant for sale
Maple Leaf Foods has started up the formal process to sell Ontario’s largest pork plant before the end of the year. The Toronto food company’s pork processing plant at Burlington, near Hamilton, now employs about 1,200 people processing about 42,000 hogs per week, about 16 per cent below its capacity of 50,000. “Our Burlington, Ont. […] Read more
Federal swine cull funding still available: CPC
There’s still time for hog producers who might want to downsize their herds or exit the business to apply for federal funds to cull breeding hogs, the Canadian Pork Council said last week. In a release Thursday, the council said that as of July 11, roughly 500 applications to the federal cull breeding swine program […] Read more
Cattle’s eyes a marker for temper: study
Selecting cattle to breed for temperament may soon become as easy as seeing the whites of their eyes. In a study outlined Monday in an Ontario ag ministry newsletter for beef producers, University of Guelph researcher and master’s student Sarah Core explored the correlation between the amount of white showing in cattle’s eyes and the […] Read more
CFIA eyes funding cut for BSE sample tests
(Resource News International) — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has considered cutting funding to a BSE sampling program that provides reimbursement to farmers who submit suspected animals for testing. But a CFIA official stressed that the proposal was simply that, and will not be implemented any time soon. Freeman Libby, national director for strategy with […] Read more
Release food inspection plan now: Liberals
The federal government needs to release its plan now for food safety inspections in Canada, without worrying about the “communications risks” involved in releasing it, the federal Liberals said Wednesday. News reports in the past week have stated that a Canadian Food Inspection Agency biologist has been sacked after finding confidential documents outlining such a […] Read more
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