Livestock
Beijing (Reuters) — China has banned poultry and poultry product imports from Manitoba after an outbreak of bird flu there, the country’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement published Thursday. A low-pathogenic H5N2 bird flu outbreak was identified on a turkey breeding farm in Manitoba, the statement said, citing […] Read more
China to ban Man. poultry over low-level bird flu
Major expansion backed for Lethbridge cheese plant
Alberta dairy farmers can expect up to $15 million more per year in revenue as Agropur moves to expand its cheesemaking business in the province. In what’s billed as “the first major expansion in decades” for the cheese industry in Alberta, the Longeuil, Que.-based dairy processing co-operative has budgeted $23 million for additions and automation […] Read more
Feed pea bids looking strong nearby
(Commodity News Service Canada) –– Farmers with feed peas to sell should be seeing relatively favourable prices right now, as some end-users are being forced to bid up the market in order to acquire their necessary supplies. Feed pea prices have moved up in tandem with edible peas over the past few months, with current […] Read more
Peace-area farmers get break on pumping rentals
Farmers in the dry Peace River region in Alberta’s northwest who used the province’s emergency water pumping program can expect full refunds on the equipment rental fees they paid. The Alberta government said Wednesday it has budgeted about $150,000 to waive those rental fees for eligible farmers, retroactive to Jan. 1. Over 200 Peace-area farmers […] Read more
Agropur to make Boursin cheeses in Canada
Fromageries Bel, the French cheese company that makes and markets such cheeses as Mini Babybel and The Laughing Cow, will now contract the production of its Boursin cheese line in Canada to dairy co-op Agropur. Bel and Agropur on Monday announced plans to share a “multi-million-dollar investment” and expand Agropur’s processing plant at St-Hyacinthe to […] Read more
Klassen: In feeder cattle, the trend is your friend
The western Canadian feeder cattle market was steady to $2 per hundredweight (cwt) firmer last week for animals in the 6-weights and higher categories; lightweight feeders were up $5-$8/cwt in comparison to the previous week. We saw 700- to 800-pound steers in southern Alberta trade in the range of $116-$126/cwt while lightweights under 400 pounds […] Read more
N.B. deputy ag minister Jim McKay, 62
Memorial services will be held Friday in West St. John for New Brunswick’s deputy minister of agriculture and aquaculture, Jim McKay. McKay, who was also the top bureaucrat for the province’s fisheries portfolio, died Thursday following what his obituary in Saturday’s Fredericton Daily Gleaner described as a “short illness.” CBC New Brunswick reported Friday that […] Read more
DDGS prices climbing in Western Canada
(Commodity News Service Canada) — Prices for dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), the byproduct of ethanol production, have been climbing higher of late, and the trend is expected to continue into 2011. Ryan Slozka, senior commodity trader with Rycom Trading Ltd. at Kelowna, B.C., said the higher prices are because corn and barley prices […] Read more
Southbound cattle flow seen shorting U.S. beef supply
U.S. livestock market analysts see a shortage of grinding beef in that country’s future, due in part to significantly slower southbound shipments of Canadian slaughter cattle. Steve Meyer and Len Steiner, authors of the Chicago-based CME Group’s Daily Livestock Report, noted in Wednesday’s edition that Canadian slaughter cow imports to the U.S. in the last […] Read more
Sask. sheds Melfort meat processing firm
The Saskatchewan government’s two-year search for a buyer for its cash-losing Thomson Meats plant at Melfort has ended in the company’s head office. A company led by current Thomson CEO Paul Kowdrysh will pay $246,972.05 for the meat packer and assume all its debt and liabilities, the province announced last week. “Our role as government […] Read more
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