Livestock
Reading Time: 3 minutes If your dairy cows are feeling blue, then you need to be concerned. That was the message delivered to attendees at the recent Western Canadian Dairy conference by Marina Von Keyserlingk, a University of British Columbia professor who is recognized internationally for her research on care and housing of dairy cows and calves. Von Keyserlingk […] Read more
Avoid Stress During Dairy Cow Transition Period
“Meating” Consumer Demand
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brad McLeod has a beef with the Canadian meat industry. “We’re only interested in selling steaks and roasts,” the co-ordinator of the meat processing and management department at Olds College told attendees at the recent Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association conference. He used sausages as an example. “There is definitely a market for fresh sausages […] Read more
Trust Still Has To Be Earned
Reading Time: 3 minutes Consumers aren’t easy to figure out. On one hand, they want green, hormone-free product from family farms with the highest environmental and animal-care standards. On the other, they will eat supper out of a bag on the way home. To illustrate this behaviour, let us take a hypothetical look at the day in the life […] Read more
Raising Rabbits Takes A Knack
Reading Time: 3 minutes J&M Rabbit Farms is the biggest operation of its kind in Alberta, and possibly Canada, but Jim and Margaret Oosterhof are too busy to keep score. “We don’t care how big other people’s operations are,” says Jim Oosterhof. “We’ve just grown our numbers to work for us.” The couple from Wilson Siding, near Lethbridge, raises […] Read more
Manitoba cattle price insurance in the works
Hidden in Manitoba Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk’s 2011-12 budget is a $200,000 allocation for cattle insurance. The Manitoba government has set aside $200,000 for a livestock insurance pilot program for the province’s cattle producers. The allocation is hidden in the 2011-12 provincial budget Wowchuk brought down April 12. The Co-operator learned about it during briefings […] Read more
Pork exports to India tied to FTA breakthrough
Canadian producers hope free trade negotiations with India will result in that country allowing imports of Canadian pork products, according to an official with one of the agencies trying to open those doors. “There is definitely demand for Canadian pork in India,” according to Jacques Pomerleau, president of Canada Pork International. Currently, no Canadian pork […] Read more
N.L. budget to back new entrants in farming
“New entrants” to farming in Newfoundland and Labrador can expect to see support from initiatives pledged in the province’s latest budget. Provincial Finance Minister Tom Marshall on Tuesday announced $250,000 to set up what it’s dubbed “Our Farms, Our Food, Our Future,” a provincial agriculture and agrifoods strategy. That funding, Marshall said, “will include $150,000 […] Read more
N.S. to fast-track handoff of unwanted Crown land
The Nova Scotia government plans to step up the release of up to a quarter-million acres of “unacknowledged and ungranted” Crown land to private owners. The province on Tuesday introduced an amendment to its Court and Administrative Reform Act will give authority to the natural resources minister to sign certificates of release for parcels of […] Read more
Ont. eyes reprieve for ag work near endangered birds
Ontario farmers whose hayland or pastureland is nesting ground for a “threatened” species of songbird may soon get a three-year exemption from regulations that would restrict field work. The provincial government on Friday said it has proposed an exemption from Endangered Species Act requirements on haying or use of pasture lands where bobolinks live, usually […] Read more
Klassen: Feeder cattle soften
Feeder cattle prices in Western Canada were $2 to $3 lower last week due to weaker slaughter values and rising barley prices. Alberta steers in the 500- to 600-pound category traded in the range of $140 to $150; auction markets reported 600- to 700-pound replacement steers in the range of $134 to $144. Overall, buyers […] Read more
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