Livestock Management
A mass e-mail accusing McDonald’s Canadian restaurants of importing beef from South America rather than buying domestically is a hoax, says a Canadian Cattlemen’s Association official. John Masswohl said an e-mail circulating that McDonald’s will begin sourcing its beef for Canadian restaurants from South America is not true. “We’ve had so much cheap cow beef […] Read more
Livestock Management
Big Mac remains Canadian beef, says chain rep
XL Foods’ Tyson buy still pending
It will still be a few weeks before it’s known if the federal Competition Bureau will allow XL Foods to buy Tyson’s Lakeside beef slaughter plant in Brooks, Alta. Pamela Wong, the bureau’s media spokesperson, said the investigation is still ongoing into the sale of the plant, feed yard and fertilizer assets. “We’re in the […] Read more
Alta. Hereford wins the big one
BOWDEN, Alta. – As a farm boy growing up in Ontario, Tom McNeely pored over purebred cattle magazines and hoped that one day he would be pictured on those pages with a championship banner from a major show. That happened this year when his home-raised bull, Golden Oak Outcross 18U, was named spring bull calf […] Read more
Prevent unwanted horses, warns vet
Canada should avoid the horse stewardship catastrophe that is emerging in the United States as tens of thousands of unwanted horses face abuse or abandonment, says an American expert. “We were caught unprepared and it is a huge problem,” Dr. Douglas Corey, an Oregon-based veterinarian, told the annual meeting of the Canadian Quarter Horse Association […] Read more
Early sow culling may not pay
Producers are jumping the gun when they cull sows, says a Minnesota veterinarian and statistical expert. Many apparently poorly performing sows are better than producers think, and replacement gilts are a more risky proposition than many realize. “We’re not getting the financial return on culling early that we expect,” said Stephanie Rutten-Ramos, who spoke at […] Read more
Needle good tool in hog barns
Farmers are too scared of using the needle to treat almost-finished pigs. They are instead using the shotgun approach with antibiotics if signs of disease appear in their barns, or else killing near-market weight hogs unnecessarily, said veterinarian Mike Sheridan. “I don’t know why they won’t use the needle,” he said. “That’s the one you’ve […] Read more
Producers explore on-farm disposal
OLDS, Alta. – Alberta producers have options when they need to get rid of dead livestock and poultry. “Alberta Agriculture oversees dead animal regulations and they don’t have any plans to stop natural disposal, like some of the other provinces have done,” department official Virginia Nelson told a recent seminar in Olds. Besides natural disposal, […] Read more
Can organic, conventional producers co-exist?
Conventional and organic livestock producers don’t often go to the same conventions, but recently in Manitoba there has been more talking across the big divide. “There are so few people that understand agriculture, those who do understand it need to be on the same team,” Organic Food Council of Manitoba president Janine Gibson said after […] Read more
Hog producers holding out for better times
The Manitoba hog industry feels like it has been facing the four horsemen of the apocalypse, but two of them may have turned around. Andrew Dickson, general manager of Manitoba Pork Council, says producers hope that the defectors can turn the tide – at least temporarily – and save them. “The future is going to […] Read more
Early weaning has drawbacks
Early weaning is getting an early death in many hog operations because it can cause more problems than it solves, a U.S. veterinarian told the Manitoba Swine Seminar. “We have undervalued the benefit of age to the piglet,” Chad Hastad, a Minnesota swine specialist, said in an interview. “Wean age is a critical factor.” Piglets […] Read more
