Barry Wilson

Farm family reliance on off-farm income continues to grow, according to the latest farm income analysis published by Statistics Canada. An analysis of farm income tax returns for the year 2000 indicated that off-farm sources accounted for 56 percent of average farm operator income, including smaller farms more dependent on non-farm income, and 73 percent […] Read more

Three down and four to go. British Columbia last week became the third province to sign onto the agricultural policy framework, even as critics accused federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief of using blackmail and the BSE crisis to force reluctant provinces to sign on. Vanclief has insisted that the APF disaster fund will be a […] Read more

Tighter beef import rules brought in last month have not helped the beleaguered Canadian cattle industry as expected. When trade minister Pierre Pettigrew bowed to beef industry pressure in late May and made it more difficult to import offshore beef for processing, trade department officials expected there would a quick boost for the Canadian sector. […] Read more

It’s time for countries to move beyond the rhetoric of free trade and craft a world trade deal that increases the international flow of goods without hurting farmers, says the president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. Bob Friesen told an international economic committee of NATO officials and politicians June 11 that too much time […] Read more

New Zealand’s agricultural trade envoy is optimistic the current round of world trade talks will produce significant benefits for farmers, despite gloom about a potential stalemate or breakdown of talks this September in Cancun, Mexico. Graham Fraser, a former dairy farmer hired by the New Zealand government to travel the world promoting freer trade, said […] Read more

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency begins presenting evidence this week to the United States that Alberta’s lone case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy does not affect the safety of the rest of the Canadian herd. It will be the beginning of Canada’s veterinary science-backed political effort to regain access to the American market, which has been […] Read more

Trevor McMillan is a 20-year-old Quebec farm kid, a graduate of an Alberta ag college, who has a dream of becoming a dairy farmer. But he calls it an impossible dream. He said the high cost of quota needed to get into the business is blocking him. His cattle producer parents cannot bankroll him. He […] Read more

OSLER, Sask. – Joe Guenther has been in the dairy business a long time. He remembers the industry before supply management. He also remembers the introduction of quotas, the birth of quota values and the advent of record high quota prices. Guenther is also helping the next generation enter the business. His son Chad is […] Read more

A decision by the World Trade Organization to reduce protective tariffs would deflate quota values and throw Canada’s supply managed dairy industry into a state of turmoil, say industry observers. But federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief says he’s not going to speculate on how such a decision would affect Canada’s dairy industry. Nor would he […] Read more

Chris Birch is a 46-year-old dairy farmer from Hilsdale, Ont., who wants to make it clear that he is not an opponent of the supply management system. “Supply management didn’t work for me,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it can’t work for someone else. If you are in the system, it is a good living. […] Read more