Three American states require additional testing of Canadian cattle imports for tuberculosis and brucellosis. Individual states have the right to go beyond U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, said George Luterbach of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. “Canada has no objection to testing cattle to the standard of the USDA much like U.S. animals would be […] Read more
Barbara Duckworth
Stories by Barbara Duckworth
Commercial show gets thumbs up
REGINA – Stephen and Kristin Wielgosz’s Charolais bull program received a gold star of approval when they decided to show in the commercial barn rather than the purebred events at Canadian Western Agribition. The result was winning the supreme champion pen of bulls among the five breeds on display. Their three January 2007 bulls were […] Read more
Simmental buyers like tradition
REGINA – The Robb brothers have had a good fall with high prices and praise when they enter the show ring, but on the farm at Maidstone, Sask., they get back to the business of providing good bulls to commercial beef producers. The family has been in the Simmental business since the 1970s when Gary […] Read more
Charolais set for comeback
REGINA – It’s time for cattle producers to start using white bulls again, says the president of the Canadian Charolais Association. “It is time to own more cows and it is time for new breeders,” said Cameron Sparrow, adding that the commercial beef industry needs more Charolais-sired calves to improve rates of gain because packers […] Read more
Australian cattle producers test unique Canadian breed
REGINA – This time next year there will be Speckle Park calves on the ground in Australia. After a sales team bought two bulls at Canadian Western Agribition in 2006, semen and embryos were collected to introduce the distinct breed Down Under. At this year’s Agribition, the Speckle Park Australia Partners Ltd. sold back the […] Read more
U.S. permits older cattle, but producers still uneasy
The United States border has opened to all classes of Canadian cattle born since March 1999, but cattle producers and others in the industry continue to hold their breath. An 11th hour attempt by the R-CALF USA to obtain a temporary restraining order failed, and it was all systems go Nov. 19. The Montana-based R-CALF, […] Read more
U.S. rescinds hold order on Canadian meat exports
A U.S. food safety audit of Canadian meat plants has ended following massive beef recalls, which were prompted by E. coli discoveries in both countries. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reported that the audits were carried out at a number of Canadian plants, including one beef facility. As of Nov. 16 the U.S. Food Safety […] Read more
Rising corn prices tied to oil
The escalating cost of corn can be linked to the price of crude oil, says a University of Iowa agriculture economist. Bob Babcock told a bioenergy conference in Calgary Nov. 13 that grain prices are now linked to oil and gasoline prices because ethanol is sold into an energy market where price is set by […] Read more
Pest shuts down Alberta spud trade
KANANASKIS, Alta. – A pest the size of a grain of sand has temporarily shut Alberta out of the export market for seed potatoes. Two positive cases of the pale cyst nematode out of more than 2,000 samples were diagnosed in Alberta this fall. As a result, the province is quarantined and unable to export […] Read more
TB leads to quarantines
Investigations continue into a case of bovine tuberculosis tracked to a farm at Vanderhoof, B.C. A Charolais bull was diagnosed with tuberculosis lesions at a slaughterhouse in Quebec. The bull was part of a herd that was dispersed through the Innisfail, Alta., auction market last summer and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has quarantined 28 […] Read more
