Speculation continues over what might happen to North American beef supplies now that a leading feed supplement has been removed from the market. Merck temporarily stopped sales of Zilmax earlier this month because of animal welfare concerns with lameness. The product helped cattle gain more muscle and added more beef to the market. Researchers at […] Read more
Barbara Duckworth
Stories by Barbara Duckworth
Canadian cattle herd makes little growth
Small increase first since 2005 Beef cattle numbers down in all provinces except British Columbia, Alberta
Canada’s livestock numbers remain flat as a strong loonie and high feed costs create little appetite for expansion. Statistics Canada’s July 1 inventory report found 13.540 million cattle, up 0.1 percent from last year’s census. Though modest, it was the first year-over-year increase since 2005 and followed seven years of declining inventories. There are 3.9 […] Read moreU.S. court sets date for COOL hearings
An injunction to temporarily halt implementation of new country of origin labelling regulations in the United States is expected to get a first court hearing Aug. 27. A coalition of eight meat processors and livestock organizations in Canada, Mexico and the United States filed for the injunction in July. The U.S. department of justice filed […] Read more
Sales of Zilmax temporarily suspended
Scientific review | Merck Animal Health to examine growth promotant banned at Tyson Fresh Meats plants
In a surprise move, Merck Animal Health has temporarily suspended sales of the beta agonist Zilmax in Canada and the United States. When Tyson’s Fresh Meats said it would no longer accept cattle fed the product because it had seen problems with animal lameness, Merck defended Zilmax but promised a research project to determine if […] Read moreAlberta begins plans for better flood protection
Brad Stelfox was traveling on the Danube River studying the effects of flooding in Europe when he received a phone call from his son in Calgary June 20. The police had given him 10 minutes to evacuate the family home in Sunnyside, an inner city Calgary community hard hit by flooding. The flooding of the […] Read more
Ottawa provides $14 million for beef research
AIRDRIE, Alta. — The federal government has committed $14 million to beef cattle research over the next five years. The Beef Cattle Industry Science Cluster will manage the money to improve beef quality and food safety, animal health and welfare, disease detection, forage production and feed efficiency, federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said in an […] Read more
Young people tackle world problems at international conference
The challenge of feeding nine billion people in less than 50 years has been put to 118 young people from 20 countries at the youth agriculture global summit being held in Calgary this week. While that question is already stymieing the experts, the sponsors of this event decided it was time to ask those who […] Read more
West Hawk Lake facility closing for good
The West Hawk Lake livestock check point is closing for good due to lack of funding. The checkpoint was temporarily closed earlier this year. It is located on the Trans-Canada highway on the Manitoba-Ontario border and collected data on livestock moving across the country. This site was the only road linking the eastern and western […] Read more
Tyson says no to Zilmax supplements
Meat processing giant Tyson Fresh Meats will no longer accept cattle fed the supplement Zilmax as of Sept. 6. The United States based company sent a letter to cattle feeding operations citing recent problems where cattle entering processing plants were lame or could not move. It based its decision on some information that the feed […] Read more
Use beef genomics to improve or lose out to ‘other protein’
Cattle producers not listening | DNA information can be used to breed better quality meat without hormones or antibiotics
A DNA train is coming down the track, and scientists are urging beef producers to get on board or be left behind. Information on strands of DNA can offer better than average predictions as to whether a beef animal will have valuable production traits such as improved weight gain, feed efficiency, calving ease or better […] Read more
