Livestock

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is looking into “possible linkages” between 45 cases of E. coli-related illness this summer from B.C. to New Brunswick — and that involves “actively investigating” a closed meat plant in Alberta. CFIA and the Public Health Agency of Canada, in an information bulletin issued late Friday, said they will examine […] Read more

Cost-cutting and price hikes helped offset higher costs for corn, wheat and other inputs on Maple Leaf’s third-quarter bottom line, the company reported Thursday. The quarter ending Sept. 30 included an after-tax gain of $218 million on the sale of Maple Leaf’s animal feed businesses to Dutch firm Nutreco, which led to skewed net earnings […] Read more

Inventories of hogs in Canada fell for the second quarter in a row on softening slaughter prices and escalating feed costs, even while international demand for Canadian hogs and pork remains high, Statistics Canada reported Thursday. Canada had 14.4 million hogs on farms as of October 1, down 3.1 per cent from the year-earlier date […] Read more

Farmers in Quebec can expect to end 2007 with total net farm income in the neighbourhood of $425 million, showing a “relative stability” across the ag sector overall, according to a new economic report from the provincial farm lender. L’Agroindicateur, an index released annually by La Financiere agricole based on its own data and federal […] Read more

A boatload of 2,217 Canadian purebred Angus, Holstein and Hereford cattle left for Russia Tuesday as part of Canada’s biggest export of breeding stock since the discovery of BSE in Alberta in 2003. The cattle were shipped from Quebec’s Port de Becancour en route to Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, where they will be fanned […] Read more

Bill Laidlaw has been named the new general manager for the Chicken Farmers of Ontario. Laidlaw has worked in not-for-profit and association management since 2000, most recently as executive director of The Biotechnology Initiative and the Canadian Biotechnology Education Resource Centre. He also previously worked as the CEO for St. John Ambulance in Ontario and […] Read more

The cash-losing Atlantic Beef Products plant on Prince Edward Island may get up to $11 million in federal and provincial funds to keep running, according to a CBC News report Friday. The report said an actual deal may be two weeks away but quoted unnamed sources as saying the federal government’s Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency […] Read more

A project to generate power and heat from livestock waste and improve water remediation in Alberta’s Peace River country will get over $904,000 in provincial government funding. The province announced Friday that Smoky Pork Development Ltd. will get funding through its Bio-refining Commercialization and Market Development program and its Bio-energy Infrastructure Development program, as one […] Read more

The Quebec government has put up $2.7 million as part of a $4 million project to add research and development capability for agro-environmental goods and services at the Centre de developpement bioalimentaire du Quebec at La Pocatiere, about 90 miles northeast of Quebec City. The investment will allow the CDBQ to buy new, specialized equipment […] Read more

Alberta’s West Central Airshed Society has opened the province’s first air monitoring station powered by solar and wind energy. The station, one of 127 air monitoring stations in the province, is meant to provide background data to help manage air quality in the province. The Alberta government, which put up $40,000 toward the design and […] Read more