Pork council joins call for higher hog prices

The Canadian Pork Council yesterday joined six other national hog farmer groups in calling for “immediate lifts” in farmer returns and wholesale and retail pork prices. Speaking from the World Pork Conference in Nanjing, China, the CPC and farmer groups from Britain, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa said their farmer members are […] Read more

Packers’ group names Canadian spokesman

Robert de Valk, an Ottawa-based consultant on food regulatory issues, is the new Canadian government affairs director for the North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP). The group, which represents North American meat processors and their associates from offices in Reston, Va. (near Washington, D.C.) and in Ottawa, said in a release that de Valk’s appointment […] Read more


Beef herd vaccinated for E. coli

Top Meadow Farms, a commercial beef operation in Ontario and Saskatchewan, has laid claim to the title of the world’s first beef producer to vaccinate cattle against E. coli 0157:H7. Bioniche Life Sciences, the Ontario manufacturer of the vaccine, said in late August it had already sold its first order, while the product remains under […] Read more

Quebec ag receipts keep just ahead of bills

Quebec’s farm revenue rose in the first half of 2007 compared to the same time in 2006 — an increase that stayed just ahead of a corresponding rise in expenses, the provincial statistics agency reported today. L’institut de la statistique du Quebec (ISQ) reported overall farm cash receipts of $3.32 billion for the first half […] Read more


Horseback riders lack protection: injury study

The need for protective gear among horseback riders has been underlined in a Calgary study of the injuries that put them in hospital. The study of 7,941 trauma patients treated at Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre from 1995 to 2005 showed 151 people severely injured while horseback riding — 45 per cent of whom needed surgery […] Read more

Sask. hogs make way to slaughter elsewhere

(Resource News International) With no federally-approved hog slaughtering facilities left in Saskatchewan, hogs have found homes in Manitoba, Alberta and the U.S., according to industry participants. “The closure of Maple Leaf’s Saskatoon hog slaughtering facility at the end of May has resulted in producers in the province looking elsewhere to market their annual production of […] Read more


Sask. widens net for CWD survey

Saskatchewan has widened its designated areas for deer herd reduction as part of its 2007 chronic wasting disease (CWD) control program. In areas where CWD has been found in deer in past years, last year’s smaller herd reduction areas will be expanded to include the entire wildlife management zone surrounding them, the province announced today. […] Read more

Canadian pork industry presses China on ban

(Resource News International) Efforts are underway to reinstate pork exports to China from the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon, Man., said an official with the Canadian Pork Council. “It was certainly a surprise that pork from Maple Leaf was banned by China, given that a number of countries which have been using the growth stimulant […] Read more


Maple Leaf deal brings ham jobs: UFCW

A new contract for workers at a Maple Leaf plant in Winnipeg will mean the shifting of 550 jobs to a new ham boning line there, according to the workers’ union. Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 832 working at Maple Leaf’s Lagimodiere Boulevard meat processing plant in the St. Boniface […] Read more

Global standards wanted after China blocks pork

A ban imposed by the Chinese government on imports of pork from a number of Canadian and U.S. packers shows the need for international standards for approval of animal health and nutrition products, according to the Canadian Meat Council. Speaking on Farmscape, a pork industry-sponsored news service, CMC executive director Jim Laws said it’s not […] Read more