New WCWGA president
Staff / The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association has elected Levi Wood of Pense, Sask. as its new president.
Wood, who farms with his father on a fifth-generation farm, replaces Kevin Bender, who stepped down after four years at the association’s convention in January.
Wood graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a degree in commerce. He obtained his MBA from the University of British Columbia. He returned to farming in 2007 after previous work as a foreign exchange trader.
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Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
The Wheat Growers will continue to work on policy issues to enhance the prosperity of Prairie grain farmers, including work to create a more attractive investment climate, further Canadian Grain Commission reforms, trade agreements and a science-based regulatory approval system for seed and other farm inputs.
How competitive are Canadian farmers, really?
Staff / A new project will find out how cost competitive Canadian grain producers are on factors influencing cost of production versus producers in competing countries. The Farmers of North America Strategic Agriculture Institute (FNA-STAG) is leading the work, together with its partners, Farm Credit Canada (FCC) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
The research is aimed at analyzing international cost competitiveness of Canada’s grain producers and facilitating an enhanced understanding of the advantages and disadvantages Canadian grain farmers face on their farms compared to major competitor countries.
Representatives of FCC, Grain Growers of Canada, Manitoba Canola Growers Canadian Federation of Agriculture and FNA-STAG board of directors will serve on a project advisory group.
Work on the project is expected to be complete by the end of 2013.
U.S. deserves top mad cow rating, health officials say
By Charles Abbott washington / reuters
The United States is expected to get the top safety rating for mad cow disease in spring, under a recommendation from international livestock health experts that was greeted Feb. 20 as a surefire boost to U.S. beef exports.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the recommended upgrade, to “negligible” from “controlled” risk, was proof that U.S. beef meets the highest safety standards in the world. A trade group, the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association, said the move was “a big step forward towards enhancing our export opportunities.”
The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) was expected to formally adopt the recommendation at its annual meeting in May in Paris. OIE’s scientific arm recommended the upgrade after reviewing U.S. safeguards.
The United States would be the 20th country to get a negligible risk rating for the fatal, brain-wasting disease, formally named bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), according to data on OIE’s website.
Four cases of BSE have been reported in the United States since 2003. The most recent was April 24, 2012, in an elderly, lame dairy cow in southern California.
The United States requested an upgrade in its OIE rating last year. Vilsack said the OIE panel agreed U.S. safeguards and surveillance systems were strong.
U.S. safeguards include a ban on using ruminant parts in cattle feed and keeping spinal cords, brains and nervous tissue, the items most at risk of infection, out of the food supply. USDA tests about 40,000 head a year for the disease.
