Livestock

A deal to harmonize North America to international standards for trade in breeding cattle will end a ban by several U.S. state governments against Canadian breeding stock entering Mexico through their border ports. The three North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, announced Thursday that they’ve agreed to harmonize trade […] Read more

The Manitoba Pork Council plans a “temporary pause” on all of its research funding in light of what it called a “permanent moratorium” on the province’s hog industry. The council’s announcement Thursday follows the provincial government’s indefinite moratorium, put in place March 3, on new or expanding hog operations in the province’s southeastern “hog alley” […] Read more

The Ontario government plans to stream at least some of the $358 million it will receive from the federal Community Development Trust toward agriculture programs. Premier Dalton McGuinty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed Ontario’s allocation from the fund in a news release Thursday. The federal government’s $1 billion Community Development Trust funds, to be […] Read more

Farm cash receipts in Quebec were up 9.3 per cent in 2007 over 2006, the provincial statistician reported Tuesday. The province’s farmers posted receipts of $6.77 billion in the last calendar year, l’Institut de la statistique du Quebec (ISQ) said. That’s up $574.9 million, about half of which comes from production and the other half […] Read more

A new diagnostic kit to test vitamin A and D content in fortified milk and other dairy products will get almost $1 million in federal funding to help see it through the marketing phase. SciMed Technologies of Edmonton has developed VitaKit A and VitaKit D, which the company says will allow dairy processors to reliably, […] Read more

Saskatchewan’s provincial budget calls for a new $6 million farm and ranch water infrastructure fund to deal with “long-standing water supply issues” in parts of the province. The historically dry southwestern part of the province was mentioned in particular in the province’s press release, part of a series of releases during budget day on Wednesday. […] Read more

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association has officially installed Brad Wildeman of Lanigan, Sask., as its new president and Tony Saretsky of Ponoka, Alta., as its vice-president. The CCA’s board of directors held elections for the posts during the association’s annual general meeting last week in Ottawa. Wildeman, who heads Pound-Maker AgVentures, a feedlot and ethanol processing […] Read more

A cull of “high-risk animals” is underway on a farm in Quebec’s Rimouski district after a sheep in a small herd was confirmed last month with scrapie. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed both the cull and a quarantine on the farm in a statement Wednesday. The agency said it’s now in the usual […] Read more

The federal government has pledged $925,000 in development funding for new, novel dairy products such as cheeses and cheese alternatives with functional food characteristics. “This project will not only lead to a more competitive dairy industry, but provide Canadian consumers with a greater variety of healthier foods, such as different varieties of cheeses,” said Ontario […] Read more

Meat company Olymel and poultry firm Groupe Westco plan to jointly consolidate their poultry production, slaughter, cutting and deboning operations for the entire Maritime region into New Brunswick. The two companies said in a release Wednesday that this partnership stems from a business relationship formed in 2007. The deal “brings together producers and operators with […] Read more