BANFF, Alta. – The United States Congress has delayed country-of-origin labelling until 2006, giving Canada time to encourage greater value-adding to homegrown pork and beef. The labelling law could also promote a national identification system for the Americans, said Richard Andersen of the Sparks Company based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Sparks group and the George […] Read more
Barbara Duckworth
Stories by Barbara Duckworth
Communist pig spreads to West
BANFF, Alta. – When the iron curtain came down, a diamond in the rough was discovered on state-owned hog farms in East Germany. A female line with durability and a strong survival instinct emerged after generations of life on state farms where conditions were sometimes less than ideal, said Keith Canfield of PIC, an international […] Read more
Pork wants traceback system
BANFF, Alta. – Canada’s success as one of the world’s leading pork exporters could evaporate without a reliable traceback system. Traceability in the event of a disease or other food safety hazard is the key to maintaining Canada’s position in world market, said Dennis McKerracher, a director with Alberta Pork and a member of the […] Read more
Many pests, few answers
RED DEER – In the bout between man and insects, there are many technical winners but few clear knockouts. Grasshoppers, flea beetles, lygus bugs, cutworms and other contenders continue to challenge prairie farmers. With populations appearing to be on the rise, Alberta started a monitoring group last summer to provide weekly surveys across the province […] Read more
Seed treatments best control option
RED DEER – Producer should use seed treatments to control cutworms and flea beetles when they are most vulnerable, says Lloyd Dosdall of the University of Alberta. Flea beetles were at record levels in Alberta last year and many successfully overwintered as adults. “In 2003 we had levels that were unheard of in this province,” […] Read more
Alberta farmers issued crop disease warning
RED DEER – Dry weather usually means less disease, but it can bring its own problems. Ralph Lange of the Alberta Research Council told an agronomy workshop in Red Deer that dry weather encourages an increase in fusarium wilt in canola, sclerotinia in sunflowers and seedling blight in slow-emerging crops. Fusarium wilt spores are produced […] Read more
Horse group ponders ID scheme
RED DEER – Horses may be the next livestock group to adopt individual identification. Working through Equine Canada, a national identification task force will assess and recommend whether such a plan would benefit members and if it would be involved with the Canadian Livestock Identification Agency. “The task force is on a fact-finding mission,” said […] Read more
Animal rights codes have room to improve
RED DEER – Widespread changes in the care and transportation of farm animals have occurred in the last 50 years as more people believe they have a moral duty to care for animals, says the retiring president of the Alberta SPCA. There is still work to be done especially in the care of animals in […] Read more
Fat makes good addition to horse diets
RED DEER – Feeding fat to horses is a common practice to grow a more luxurious coat, but modern research shows fat carries other nutritional benefits as well. “We have found up to 20 percent of their total diet by weight can be fat without any ill effects,” said horse specialist Lori Warren of Colorado […] Read more
Alberta PMU rancher accepts industry’s fate
RED DEER – Horse owner Danny Willows has a stoic approach to the decline of the pregnant mares’ urine industry to 130 farms from 400. “The world changes and we have to, too,” said Willows, who has 170 PMU mares at his ranch near Buck Lake, Alta. He and his wife Dorothy raise a variety […] Read more
