Livestock
The Alberta government will put up almost $508,000 toward feasibility studies for two livestock methane power plants as well as an ethanol plant expansion. The province’s contributions, announced Wednesday, will come through its Biorefining Commercialization and Market Development program and Bio-energy Infrastructure Development program. The three contributions include: $300,000 for a study by Kingdom Farm […] Read more
Central Alta. bioenergy projects get $508K
New cheese standards planned for late 2008
New federal standards for the composition of cheese are expected to allow more milk products to be used to make cheeses and to specify what can go into “aged” cheddars and other varieties. Amendments announced earlier this summer and published Wednesday in the Canada Gazette to take effect in late 2008 will cut out inconsistencies […] Read more
Hog outlook: Industry crisis may spur decline
(Resource News International) — The Canadian hog industry may lose some of its best producers if the crisis now facing the industry continues, according to Clare Schlegel, president of the Canadian Pork Council (CPC) in Ottawa. In two to three years’ time, Schlegel said, he anticipates the Canadian hog industry will have declined. The CPC […] Read more
Maple Leaf Foods to retain Rothsay rendering
Maple Leaf Foods will be retaining its Rothsay rendering operations. The fate of the division has been up in the air since October 2006, when the company announced a major change of strategy to focus on growing its value added meat, meal and bakery business. At that time the company’s management said rendering operations were […] Read more
Saskatchewan program to support hog and cattle producers
Saskatchewan hog and cattle producers will have access to a $90 million provincial short-term loan program early in the New Year. The Saskatchewan Short-Term Hog Loan and Short-Term Cattle Loan Programs were announced Dec. 21 by provincial agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud. The province estimates that hog producers will access about $30 million in loans and […] Read more
Quebec offers $17.5M for PMWS-affected hog farms
Quebec’s provincial government will offer an ad-hoc aid package of over $17.5 million for hog farmers whose herds were hit by post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). Payment details for the aid package, announced Thursday by Agriculture Minister Laurent Lessard, are expected to be finalized in January. La Financiere agricole, the provincial ag lending and funding […] Read more
Ottawa to invest $5M in Bioniche
The Belleville, Ont. maker of a vaccine expected to reduce E. coli bacteria levels in cattle and cow-pies is the first recipient of federal funding under the new AgriOpportunities program. Bioniche Life Sciences will get a repayable contribution of $5 million from Ottawa toward the $25 million first phase of its planned $107 million facility […] Read more
Interest deferral extended on CAIS overpayments
The federal and provincial governments plan to defer collection of interest on CAIS overpayments until Dec. 31, 2008 as part of their support plan for the livestock sector. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced the measure Wednesday as one of a list of alterations to help livestock producers quicker access to cash from various existing government […] Read more
Aleutian disease spreads to Nfld. wild mink
Commercial mink farmers in Newfoundland are warned to keep wild mink off their farms now that Aleutian disease has arrived in the wild population. The provincial natural resources department announced Wednesday that eight of 18 wild animals trapped and tested between Marysvale and Holyrood in the Conception Bay area have tested positive for the disease, […] Read more
Sask. poultry farmers press for flu cleanup funds
The cost burden for cleaning up poultry farms after outbreaks of avian flu shouldn’t be left to affected farmers alone, Saskatchewan’s poultry groups said Tuesday. The poultry groups, pooling their resources under the banner of the Saskatchewan Poultry Industry Emergency Management Team (SPIEMT), said Tuesday that they had raised $100,000 to help a farmer in […] Read more
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