Livestock exporters are giving mixed reviews of the American proposals to resume live animal trade with Canada. The new guidelines could allow the partial resumption of trade in youthful animals next year, but the Canadian elk, sheep and goat producer organizations argue some of the rules are unreasonable. Glenda Elkow of the Alberta Elk Association […] Read more
Barbara Duckworth
Stories by Barbara Duckworth
Cull slaughter plant planned
An Alberta group hopes to build a cow and bull slaughter plant in Pincher Creek, Alta. The Southwest Business Development Centre, a federally funded organization based in Pincher Creek ,is starting a feasibility study on a plant to process cull cows and bulls and possibly custom kill bison and elk. “There is such a demand […] Read more
Corporate beef buy urged
When Tom Jackson leans forward and says in his rich, resonant voice, “the gift is in the giving,” it pulls at corporate heartstrings and prompts donations to one of the singer and actor’s favourite charities. Jackson’s latest effort to support food banks is Beef Relief, an idea conceived this summer as he watched economic hardship […] Read more
Canadians mull border proposal
It was a hard summer for feedlot operators such as Bill Freding as they lived with a collapsing cattle market in a world of over supply and limited demand. Since a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy stopped trade May 20, he has struggled to find new markets for his cattle that typically went to Washington […] Read more
Livestock revolution coming
PONOKA, Alta. – Beef producers were told at a special meeting in Ponoka that they must protect their cash flow and make business plans for a future of uncertain markets. “We will have to manage costs a lot more carefully and manage our exports differently,” Lorne Erickson of the Western Forage Beef Group said during […] Read more
USDA report rekindles COOL opposition
It didn’t take long for the fur to start flying after the United States Department of Agriculture posted its rules for country-of-origin labelling on Oct. 30. The most damning aspect of the 200-page report is an economic analysis that says there are negligible benefits to any sector, which left many asking why the American government […] Read more
BSE leaves cattle markets in chaos
PONOKA, Alta. – Canada’s BSE experience and subsequent market disarray has been unprecedented, says Kevin Grier, a livestock market analyst with the George Morris Centre in Guelph, Ont. “No one faced a situation where 69 percent of their industry was exported and they couldn’t do it anymore,” Grier told a producer meeting in Ponoka. Before […] Read more
Alta. feedlot switches to horses
An American livestock exporting company plans to convert a southern Alberta feedlot into a horse quarantine station. Schnorno Agri-business of Yelm, Washington, is waiting for approval from the province’s Natural Resources Conservation Board to convert the former Summerview Feedlot near Pincher Creek. The NRCB needs a completed application from the company to determine whether changes […] Read more
Auctions hit hard by market chaos
PONOKA, Alta. – For those on the ground buying and selling cattle, market disruptions present day-to-day challenges. After May 20, when it was announced that bovine spongiform encephalopathy had been found in one Alberta cow, cattle numbers moving through the Vold, Jones and Vold Auction in Ponoka dropped 60 percent and by mid-summer, volumes were […] Read more
Group wants elevator saved
A force of 12 hopes to save the last remaining wooden elevator in the Calgary area. Called the Friends of Rescuing the Carstairs Elevator, the group is raising funds to pay for a $10,000 bond for Agricore United to hold the facility. At one time Carstairs had one of the largest strings of elevators in […] Read more
