How’s your soil moisture? What happens if most farmers across Western Canada get decent weather this summer? How big a crop could we get? Those questions need to be pondered now that the majority of farmers across the West have received good moisture and seem to be off to a great start. We haven’t needed […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Membership crisis rocks Cereals Canada
WINNIPEG — Several members of Cereals Canada are on the verge of quitting the organization, jeopardizing plans to build a major new ag tech centre in Winnipeg. The official launch of the funding campaign to establish the Global Agriculture Technology Exchange (GATE) has been postponed, with Cereals’ Canada’s June 27 board meeting expected to clarify […] Read more
ASF prep pays off in disease vigilance
DES MOINES, Iowa — There aren’t many silver linings in the cloud of African Swine Fever fear that hangs over the world’s hog industry, but one gleamed in Australia when a different disease broke out. It was Japanese encephalitis, but due to heightened disease vigilance caused by the appearance of ASF in Asia and Europe, […] Read more
PRRS hog virus now tougher to control
DES MOINES, Iowa — Today’s PRRS isn’t yesterday’s PRRS. That means pig producers and veterinarians should mutate their approaches in the same way that Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome is mutating. “The virus has modified, so we need to do the same,” said vet and producer Dr. Deb Murray, of New Fashion Pork, after a […] Read more
VIDEO: Consulates build the bridges for trade with the U.S.
To say that federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay received a warm welcome when he visited the World Pork Expo and the Midwest would be an understatement. At the giant pig farming show and in the Iowa capital of Des Moines, he was able to meet with heads of America’s main hog farming and […] Read more
Under one roof? Not so fast
A proposal to bring some of Winnipeg’s scattered agriculture industry organizations and institutions under one roof has provoked chatter and at least one denunciation. The idea, broached by Cereals Canada but not made public, has been around for years. It apparently grew from a desire to bring together a critical mass of crop industry players […] Read more
European pigs to eat only waste and byproducts?
Politicians in the EU discuss the potential for a ban on use of farmland to produce livestock feedgrains
WINNIPEG — Pigs once ate a lot of slops. Today, feeding pigs human food waste is banned in some countries and heavily restricted in others. That would need to change in order to create “circularity in food production,” according to Dutch swine nutritionist Alfons Jansman of Wageningen University. European consumers and politicians are beginning to […] Read more
Are we planning to build a Winnipeg centre of Ag excellence, or a tower of Babel?
I visited the CBC HQ in Toronto a few times. There, within this 13-storey magnificence of white, red and glass, and under the gaze of an enormous portrait of Barbara Frum, I would wonder why all this money had been spent on erecting such a structure that would obviously turn CBC inward. It seemed an […] Read more
Feed sector worries as regulations increase
WINNIPEG — Livestock feeding is facing more sticks and fewer carrots these days, says the executive director of the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada. The widespread perception that cattle and other farm animals cause climate change and antimicrobial resistance problems has led to a hardening of government’s approach to the industry. “They look at livestock […] Read more
Fragile pigs an unexpected risk of past breeding efforts
DES MOINES, Iowa — Years ago, when Mark Soleta of Lakefield, Minnesota, brought in a load of freshly weaned Canadian piglets, he was confident those pigs would easily handle any disease challenges they faced. That confidence is gone. More World Pork Expo coverage can be found here. “Every day we’re on eggshells,” he said with […] Read more
