Livestock
Revamps to Alberta’s bioenergy producer credit program and scientific research tax credit, plus a substantial jump in ag income support payouts, are lined up in the provincial government’s latest budget papers. Finance Minister Ron Liepert’s 2012 budget speech, delivered Thursday, lays out $1.07 billion in spending in the agriculture, food and rural development department for […] Read more
Alta. budgets for jump in ag income support spending
In Ethiopia: Pivotal to survival, donkeys get no respect
If author Anna Sewell were alive today, chances are she’d be writing a follow to her best-selling novel Black Beauty about the plight of Addis and Ababa — donkeys in Ethiopia. Her 1877 story about a horse raised awareness of the inhumane treatment of horses in England and sold 50 million copies worldwide. It is […] Read more
Ex-national dairy leader to head dairy commission
A former president of the Dairy Farmers of Canada will take the helm of the Canadian Dairy Commission from another former DFC president. Jacques Laforge, who operates a 200-head Holstein dairy farm at St-Andre, N.B., was named Tuesday to a three-year term as the new CEO of the commission, which manages the support price and […] Read more
Maple Leaf to close SW Ont. chicken plant
Maple Leaf Foods plans to permanently shut a poultry further-processing plant in southwestern Ontario and flow its work to two other plants with capacity to spare. The Toronto meat- and food-processing firm said Tuesday it will close its 42,000-square foot plant at Ayr, about 15 km south of Kitchener, in May. Work done at Ayr […] Read more
Cargill’s Guelph beef plant staff ratify deal: report
Unionized staff at Cargill’s beef packing plant at Guelph, Ont. have voted to ratify a new four-year deal, just ahead of a strike deadline, according to the Guelph Mercury. The newspaper reported Monday on its website that out of the 600 staff who voted on the deal starting Sunday morning, about 78 per cent voted […] Read more
Klassen: Unstable market for West’s feeder cattle
Western Canadian feeder cattle prices were $2 per hundredweight lower to $2 per hundredweight higher in comparison to a week earlier. Sellers were passing on record-high bids for heavier-weight feeder cattle, which is usually a signal that the market is due for a correction. Angus-cross light-flesh steers averaging 880 pounds sold for $141 in central […] Read more
N.B. livestock vet, lab, processor license fees to rise
New Brunswick livestock producers and processors can expect fees to rise in April — and in some cases the next two Aprils — on such provincial services as veterinary visits, lab work and food premises licensing. The province said Wednesday it has budgeted for increased revenue of almost $6 million from proposed increases in various […] Read more
Cattle business in 2012 will see higher prices, consolidation
Reading Time: 3 minutes The good news: higher cattle prices. The bad news: fewer producers to take advantage of them. Speaking to the annual Tiffin Conference at Lethbridge College earlier this month, veteran cattle-market analyst Anne Dunford reviewed some of the record cattle prices in 2011 and predicted even higher for 2012. But she pointed out that those prices […] Read more
Animal health body wants fewer antibiotics
Reading Time: 2 minutes The world body in charge of fighting animal diseases is calling for action against widespread abuse of antibiotics in livestock farming, which leads to drug-resistant bacteria. But it warned a ban would leave the world short of protein. “The use of antibiotics is today essential to ensure sufficient animal production to feed the planet. Without […] Read more
Producers embrace effort to putAlberta at the front of pork traceability
Reading Time: 2 minutes Anational pork traceability strategy is on the way, but Alberta has started its program early, making it the first province in Canada to have a mandatory system. The system was voluntary in 2011, but became law effective Jan. 1, 2012. “We do have the processes in place for a national traceability program,” said Darcy Fitzgerald, […] Read more
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