A meat packing plant planned for Calgary will be built just outside the city limits. Doug Price, a Calgary area cattle producer, meat processor and food industry entrepreneur, is a driving force in the proposed Ranchers’ Beef meat packing plant. Along with his “49 or so” partners, Price said he struggled to find a location […] Read more
Stories by Michael Raine
Finance Notes
Canola alliance Cargill and Bayer CropScience have formed an alliance to produce specialty high oleic canola from InVigor hybrids with the Liberty Link herbicide system. The oil from the seed does not need hydrogenation and is used by food processors when there is a need to eliminate trans fat and reduce saturated fat content, the […] Read more
Border opening will help prices: analyst
Cattle prices will likely rise if the American border opens to Canadian cattle March 7 as expected, but not entirely because of U.S. demand. “Just the threat of direct competition can have as much of an impact as the competition itself,” said Canfax economist Anne Dunford. She told producers attending the Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association’s […] Read more
Cattle producers must look to world market
Ben Thorlakson and Brad Wildeman agreed that their best years were behind them. Their export-based cattle price years, that is. The two cattle feeders, Thorlakson from Alberta and Wildeman from Saskatchewan, told those attending a Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association meeting in Saskatoon Jan. 21 that they don’t expect to see $1.10 per pound cattle prices […] Read more
Egg allocation rotten: Sask.
Unsatisfied with increased allocations of egg quota by the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency and the solution recommended by the Farm Products Council, Saskatchewan is seeking a second judicial review. Last summer, the Saskatchewan Egg Producers, along with the Saskatchewan government and three individual farms, applied for a judicial review of the egg agency’s approach to […] Read more
Floating fences designed to handle frequent flooding
From droughts to deluge; water levels in sloughs across Western Canada have been more volatile in recent years, say Environment Canada climatologists. The extremes in conditions have sent cattle producers wading up to their waists in mud and water to build, rebuild and replace fences more often than in the past. Posts fall over, rot, […] Read more
Questions raised over BSE testing
North American cattle populations and feeding systems are so integrated that positive BSE findings in Canada should be similar to those south of the border. But so far, the count is Canada 3, U.S. 1 or Canada 4, U.S. 0, depending on who is counting. Chris Clark of the University of Saskatchewan says scientifically looking […] Read more
Sask. to auction egg quota to new producers
Saskatchewan Egg Producers will auction all new quota increases using a blind bidding process. SEP, the provincial supply management agency, is seeking approval from the Saskatchewan Agri-Food Council for the procedure. An increase in provincial quota of 22,253 laying birds has resulted in quota being available to individual producers, and officials decided to auction it […] Read more
Oversupply sends new-crop flax prices tumbling
High flax prices have come and gone, says market adviser Mike Jubinville. Backing him up is a new crop contract that offers $7.75 per bushel, down radically from $13 offered only a few weeks ago. Jubinville said there will likely be one more price rally before the end of the spring, “but it will be […] Read more
Growers fear flax contract in jeopardy
Canadian flax growers are concerned that the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange’s much beleaguered and often renovated flax contract may not survive last month’s move to electronic trading. Eric Fridfinnson, president of the Flax Council of Canada, told the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission meeting in Saskatoon on Jan. 10 that the loss of that price discovery mechanism […] Read more
