Livestock
Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta hog producers will be receiving $2.5 million in rebated levies, but it won’t be enough to avert a pending crash in the sector, say marketing board officials. The levy rebate of 85 cents a pig will total about $2 million for market hogs sold to packing plants by Alberta producers, and $500,000 for about […] Read more
Alberta Hog Industry In A Financial Crisis
FMD — Cattle Only Infectious For Very Short Time
Reading Time: 2 minutes Scientists studying foot and mouth disease have found that cattle with the virus are infectious for only a very short time, suggesting that mass culling previously used to reduce the disease’s spread may in future be avoided. In research published in the journalScienceMay 5, scientists found that even if the foot and mouth disease (FMD) […] Read more
ABP Offers Contest For Rural Youth
Reading Time: < 1 minute ABP is offering three cash prizes in a “What does Alberta Beef Producers mean to you?” youth-engagement contest. Those between the ages of eight and 21 and involved in Beef 4-H, junior cattle shows or beef production are eligible to enter the “Young Guns” contest saying “What Alberta Beef Producers means to you.” An entry […] Read more
New Limits On Temporary Foreign Workers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Over the last few years, the western Canadian pork industry has become heavily dependent on foreign workers. Indeed, it is not too far fetched to say that many producers would have gone out of business had they not been able to bring in well-qualified staff from countries such as the Philippines. Unfortunately, the needs of […] Read more
Grande Prairie College To Become Centre Of Bee Research In Canada
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Rural Alberta Development Fund has approved $925,360 in funding for a new centre designed to become a one-stop shop for all bee diagnostic services required by beekeepers, government departments and researchers from across the country. Development of Canada’s first National Bee Diagnostic Services Centre (NBDSC) will be led by the Centre for Research &Innovation, […] Read more
Small Towns Have Something To Teach The Beef Industry
Reading Time: 3 minutes I recently attended Aida, a musical with lyrics written by Tim Rice, one the world’s most renowned lyricists with familiar cinema and Broadway hits such as The Lion King, Evita, Beauty and the Beast, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and scores of others. His songs are intense and emotional. Put that together with the […] Read more
CFIA Reports Canada Bird Flu-Free Once More
Reading Time: < 1 minute Three months of surveillance work in Manitoba’s Interlake region have restored Canada’s status as fully free of notifiable avian flu. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reported May 5 the end of “targeted, enhanced surveillance” in the area where a turkey breeding operation was confirmed last November to have birds with low-severity avian influenza H5N2. No […] Read more
Alta. ranchers get brief access in evacuated areas
Livestock producers who need to feed and water their animals in fire-prone evacuated areas of northern Alberta can get authorization to do so. The provincial agriculture department said Thursday that producers in evacuated areas can get escorted visits to their farms for feeding and watering of livestock. To request an authorization to visit a farm, […] Read more
Program offered to help farmers spot sick pigs
Canadian swine veterinarians and the animal health arm of drug maker Pfizer have set up a new program to train hog producers on how to identify sick animals. The program, dubbed the ABC Pig training program, is to be offered nationwide “exclusively” through hog veterinarians and is meant to set up a “simple” system by […] Read more
Klassen: Feeder cattle remain soft
Feeder cattle prices continue to grind lower as replacement cattle are now $8 to $10 off the spring highs. For example, central Alberta feeder steers weighing 620 pounds were selling for $150 during the first week of April, but last week brought back $139. This was a demand-driven rally and consumers are now backing away […] Read more
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