Reading Time: 5 minutes Alberta Beef Producers is leaving the Canadian Cattle Association due to concerns about fiscal transparency and governance, ABP officials say.

ABP opens up about leaving CCA
Alberta Beef Producers plans to leave Canadian Cattle Association, due to governance and fiscal concerns

Ag industry groups seek legislated end to CP stoppage
Feed, fertilizer traffic already way behind, groups say
Warning they don’t have time to wait on negotiation, representatives for cattle feeders, fertilizer producers and grain growers took to Parliament Hill on Monday to press for the federal government to instead legislate Canadian Pacific Railway’s engineers and conductors back to work. Traffic halted on CP lines just after midnight ET Sunday morning as the […] Read more

U.S. senators scrutinize meat packers’ profits during pandemic
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. senators are calling for investigations of record profit margins for beef processors such as Tyson Foods and Cargill, after ranchers complained surging meat prices due to coronavirus hoarding did not translate into higher cattle prices. Futures prices for cattle have tumbled during the outbreak, worrying farmers as the U.S. economy […] Read more

COVID-19 strains already-battered Ontario beef industry
Limited processing capacity remains financial challenge for province's feedlot sector, despite recent increase in retail demand
Ontario’s beef industry was already in the midst of an economic crisis, but COVID-19 is worsening the financial toll on the province’s cattle feeders. Due to extremely limited processing plant capacity, an uncompetitive market and disruptions to trade and market access, Ontario’s beef industry was losing an average of more than $2 million per week […] Read more

CME plans no more changes to cattle contract for now
Chicago | Reuters — CME Group plans no further moves to reduce volatility in its cattle futures market, after making a series of changes to rein in wild price swings that drove away hedgers, a managing director said on Wednesday. Over the past two years, the exchange operator, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and […] Read more

The door to Europe isn’t quite open yet
The EU trade deal is now a go, but ‘very few producers’ have signed up for a program that makes their cattle eligible
Reading Time: 3 minutes The European Union has the potential to be a big marketplace for Canadian beef producers, but it’s going to take some effort to get them here. “We are concerned that to date very few producers are enrolling their cattle in the EU program,” the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association said in a recent edition of its e-newsletter. […] Read more

Hay shortage could make for difficult winter
CNS Canada — Many cattle producers looking for local feed this winter might have a difficult time, according to a Saskatchewan provincial forage specialist. However, producers further north in the grey and black soil zones, and those in Alberta producing high-quality feed for export, saw near-record hay production. Terry Kowalchuk of Saskatchewan Agriculture in Regina […] Read more

Scientists looking for producers to participate in beef genomic trial
The project is part of the effort to use genomics to select cattle with improved feed efficiency and other desirable traits
Reading Time: 2 minutes Want to know more about the feed efficiency and traits of your cattle? Interested in contributing to research that can make a difference in Canadian beef cattle production? Researchers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are looking for producers to send in samples from their herds for use in a genomic prediction trial. “This will potentially […] Read more

Cattle leader says the future looks bright
Tim Oleksyn says more research dollars and a national strategy will pay rich dividends for cattle producers
Reading Time: 3 minutes More research and a new team approach in the beef sector is going to put money in the pockets of producers, says the chair of the Beef Cattle Research Council. “The collaboration in the industry is refreshing,” said Tim Oleksyn, a cow-calf producer from Shellbrook, Sask. “Actually, it’s more than refreshing. I think it’s the […] Read more

Beef research mentorship applications open
Submission deadline is June 1
Reading Time: < 1 minute Applications are now open for the Beef Cattle Research Council’s Beef Researcher Mentorship Program, which helps connect upcoming and new applied researchers with Canada’s beef industry through travel to visit innovative cattle producers or other industry professionals for a one-year mentorship (Aug. 1 – July 31). The mentors are valuable resources of information about day-to-day […] Read more