Livestock
Canada has a commitment in hand from Israel to work with federal officials on granting market access for Canadian beef. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz made the announcement Wednesday coming out of a meeting with Israel’s Agriculture Minister Orit Noked. Israeli officials pledged to work with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Canada’s Market Access Secretariat […] Read more
Israel pledges to move on Canadian beef imports
New PRRS vaccine approved for young pigs
Canadian veterinarians will be able to provide hog producers with a new modified live vaccine to help protect young pigs against the respiratory form of the virus causing PRRS. Pfizer Animal Health said Tuesday it has picked up registration in Canada for Fostera PRRS, billed as a "new generation" product for vaccination of healthy, susceptible […] Read more
High Alta. feed barley bids spur demand switching
The continuing upward trend in Alberta old-crop feed barley cash bids over the past few months is seen to be making other feed grains more attractive to buyers. "We’ve seen inclusion rates of feed wheat go up, so feedlots are buying more feed wheat because it’s more cheaper than feed barley," said Jim Beusekom, a […] Read more
N.S. moving ag department head office to Truro
The headquarters of Nova Scotia’s provincial agriculture department will move to the Truro-Bible Hill area from Halifax by the end of this year. The move will see 34 head office positions moved to a community that’s already home to 141 provincial ag department staff, the provincially-operated Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) and a number of […] Read more
Klassen: Feeder cattle hold value
Feeder cattle prices were steady to $2 lower in comparison to a week earlier. A mixed group of age-verified steers weighing 581 pounds sold for $166 per hundredweight in east central Alberta. Charolais-cross medium-flesh age-verified steers weighing 680 lbs. traded for $160 in the Picture Butte area. A larger group of heavy-flesh black and red […] Read more
Imported EU genetics must pass Schmallenberg test
New testing requirements have been slapped on imports of livestock genetics from the European Union, the goal being to keep the new Schmallenberg virus out of Canada. Starting Friday (April 27), breeding livestock must test negative for the Schmallenberg virus before their embryos or semen can be exported to Canada from countries in the EU. […] Read more
N.S. to allow easements to keep land in farming
Community groups will now be able to pay farmers or other landowners in Nova Scotia to keep a given piece of land in agricultural or other "traditional" uses. The province on Thursday proposed new legislation broadening the use of easements, a tool already enshrined in the province’s Conservation Easements Act to protect land with particular […] Read more
‘Low-path’ avian flus named reportable diseases
Fears that relatively harmless strains of avian influenza could mutate into something worse, or give other countries reasons to block Canadian meat, have led Canada to formally declare the diseases as “reportable.” The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Wednesday said it will now apply the designation to the relatively common low-pathogenicity (“low-path”) H5 and H7 […] Read more
U.S. appeal of WTO COOL ruling set for May
Exporters of Canadian livestock, meat and fresh produce would have some must-see TV on next week’s schedule, if they’re willing or able to go to Switzerland to see it. The Appellate Body Division of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has hearings booked on May 2 and 3 in Geneva for the U.S. government’s appeal of […] Read more
BSE confirmed in California dairy cow
A dairy cow shipped for rendering from central California has been confirmed as the United States’ fourth domestic case of BSE, at a time when the always-fatal bovine disease appears to be on the wane worldwide. U.S. federal officials emphasized in their announcements Tuesday that the finding will not affect the country’s "controlled risk" status […] Read more
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