Livestock

Maple Leaf Foods’ bid to consolidate all its primary pork processing at its Brandon, Man. plant took another step forward Tuesday as the company confirmed its plans to double-shift its value-added cut operations there. That expansion, to be supported by about $50 million in investments, is to start in June and be completed by September. […] Read more

The Prince Edward Island government will shut down the NOFG organic hog processing plant at Charlottetown on March 28, CBC reported Monday. NOFG (Natural Organic Food Group), a Quebec company, had handed the keys over to the province earlier this year, after which the province appointed a receiver to operate the plant. The province, which […] Read more

Grains left over from making fuel aren’t the same as distillers’ grains left over from brewing beer — and if biofuel grains are to be fed to livestock, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency plans to regulate their use. CFIA on Monday rolled out a draft policy paper outlining its proposed new regulations on the use […] Read more

Farmer-owned Quebec beef packer Levinoff-Colbex needs more funds from the province’s dairy and beef producers if it’s to survive, according to the province’s cattle producer group. In a member newsletter released Friday, the Federation des producteurs de bovins du Quebec (FPBQ) said the beef plant ended 2007 with a loss due to a lower number […] Read more

The Quebec government will put up $15 million over five years for a competitiveness and innovation program for the province’s agri-food sector. The funding, announced Saturday by Agriculture Minister Laurent Lessard at the annual meeting of the province’s food processors’ council (CTAC), is meant to support processors’ research and development projects for products in line […] Read more

Quebec Agriculture Minister Laurent Lessard has called a meeting for next week with representatives of the province’s pork processors and hog producers to find out their next move, after talks toward a revival for the battered sector went bust. Lessard, in a news release Friday, said he was strongly disappointed that talks led by his […] Read more

Dairy co-op Agropur plans to make inroads in the Centre-du-Quebec and organic milk markets by buying Laitierie Lamothe, a Drummondville, Que. dairy. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed in the company’s announcement Friday, other than that the Lamothe operations will join the Agropur division Natrel, billed as “a Canadian leader in fluid milk and value-added […] Read more

Hog farmers in Saskatchewan will be offered early access to their expected 2008 AgriStability payout under a Targeted Advance Payment (TAP) program announced Thursday. Eligible producers will be contacted “soon” with information on the amounts of their advances and how to receive those payments, the federal agriculture department said in a release. The 2008 program […] Read more

Alberta’s new agriculture and rural development department will have a new top bureaucrat, the province announced Thursday. John Knapp, formerly the assistant deputy minister for the environmental assurance division of the environment ministry, has been named the deputy minister for agriculture and rural development. Knapp, who was one of eight deputy appointments announced Thursday, replaces […] Read more

Two men have now been formally charged in an animal care case that’s reached national notoriety after the seizure of 100 horses and other livestock from a northeastern Alberta farm. The Alberta SPCA said in a release Wednesday that Axel Hinz-Schleuter and Dale Huber have been charged under the Animal Protection Act with 12 counts […] Read more