Applications for Beef Industry Innovation & Sustainability Award open

Applications for Beef Industry Innovation & Sustainability Award open

Reading Time: < 1 minute The Beef Industry Innovation & Sustainability Award is accepting applications for the 2016 award. The BIISA is presented on behalf of beef cattle producers by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association to recognize industry stakeholders and value chain members for their outstanding commitment to the sustainability of Canada’s beef industry through innovation. BIISA is awarded to any […] Read more

farmer kids in the back of a truck

What does farm sustainability mean to you?

Entry deadline for 'Young Guns' contest is midnight, May 30

Reading Time: < 1 minute Youth between the ages of eight and 21 who are involved in Beef 4-H, junior cattle shows or beef production can win cash in the Young Guns essay contest. The theme of the contest is what sustainability means to you and what it looks like on your farm or ranch. An entry may be submitted […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

Guenther: McDonald’s sustainability goals to reach beyond beef

Farmers who want to keep supplying the world’s biggest quick-service restaurant chains can expect more scrutiny of their methods going forward. That’s because the chains’ customers appear to be looking for more sustainably-produced food — so companies such as McDonald’s in turn are looking for third-party verification to prove the ingredients they source make the […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Federal funding pledged for crop market development work

Canadian crop commodity groups getting federal AgriMarketing funding plan to put the money to work over five years — not just in salesmanship, but in developing their crops’ story for potential customers. Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz made two five-year funding announcements during the CropSphere 2015 conference Tuesday and Wednesday in Saskatoon: over $3.3 million […] Read more


barley and a blue sky background

Farmers wanted to test sustainability platforms

Reading Time: < 1 minute Updated Jan.9, 2015 – Alberta’s crops industry has developed its own sustainability project: The Alberta Crops Sustainability Initiative. The plan is to encourage farmers to test some of the sustainability platforms created in Canada and overseas to see how they work on Alberta farms. The initiative was developed by Alberta Wheat and Alberta Barley commissions […] Read more

beef processing at a slaughterhouse

Trust is the key to sustainable beef production

Jerry Wulf says trust, transparency, and finding win-wins were the keys to building one of North America’s largest integrated beef operations

Reading Time: 2 minutes Cattleman Leonard Wulf lived by a simple philosophy before he passed away in 2003: “You can get everything in life you want if you help others get what they want.” That principle still guides his son Jerry as he manages Wulf cattle — one of the largest integrated beef companies in North America. “As we […] Read more


glasses laying on graph sheets

Data from your farm has value and shouldn’t be given away

But under current rules, the end-user of the data is the owner, which 
means farmers are giving away an increasingly valuable commodity

Reading Time: 3 minutes There are many questions surrounding the use of data for and from farmers. Who owns the data? What is required? How does this benefit me as a farmer? I took to the streets with these questions as part as an ongoing quest to clarify just what it is that farmers may expect and more importantly, […] Read more

Questions and answers on sustainable beef

Reading Time: 2 minutes Just what exactly does “sustainable beef” mean and who is deciding on the definition? The who is the members of the Global Roundtable on Sustainable Beef. There are now several hundred but the key players are companies such as Walmart, JBS, and Cargill, the World Wildlife Fund, and producer groups, including the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. […] Read more


calves in a holding pen

EXCLUSIVE: Loblaws jumps on board the sustainable beef initiative

Canada’s largest food retailer has joined McDonald’s, the largest beef buyer, 
in an undertaking that could reshape the cattle sector

Reading Time: 5 minutes Canada’s largest food retailer has pledged to start selling sustainable beef, joining forces with the country’s largest beef buyer in an initiative that could reshape the industry, Alberta Farmer has learned. Loblaws, which has more than 1,000 stores serving 14 million Canadians weekly, already has a sustainable seafood program and is keen to do the […] Read more

chickens on scratch pads

New York Colony’s ‘furnished’ poultry housing wins sustainability awards

Furnished housing provides a more natural open environment, with nesting areas, scratch pads, and perches

Reading Time: 2 minutes State-of-the-art “furnished housing” for poultry has won the New York Hutterite Colony the inaugural Canadian Poultry Sustainability Award for both the table egg industry and the overall poultry industry honours. The Lethbridge-area colony was praised for being a progressive and forward-thinking egg farm, with a strong commitment to animal welfare and environmentally responsible farming practices. […] Read more