Livestock Management
A decades-long study has found seeding pastures to alfalfa is the best path to profitability for cattle producers. From 1994 to 2004, researchers at Agriculture Canada’s Brandon Research Centre investigated the viability of converting marginal cropland to pasture. Options included seeding pastures to create two paddocks of only meadow bromegrass and mixed meadow bromegrass-alfalfa, and […] Read more
Livestock Management
Unfertilized alfalfa best way to establish pasture
Beef suppliers see worldwide shakeup
The former giants of the meat trading world are under siege. Chicken rules as the most popular meat and Brazil and China are gaining on the traditional world suppliers of pork, poultry and beef. “Beef demand is limited by its relative high cost of production and the supply limitations to produce more beef in many […] Read more
Trade trip targets Asian fears
Alberta’s agriculture minister and board members of the meat and livestock agency are travelling to Asia this month with one question of potential customers. What will it take to start selling beef in Japan and South Korea, where regulations and BSE trade embargoes knocked Canada to its knees with little sign of recovery? People can […] Read more
Canadian beef chases oil money
Oil-rich countries could be the next buyers of Canadian beef. Canada Beef Export Federation has hired the British agri-food consulting firm Gira to study the potential of beef markets in the Middle East and North Africa. “We have a very clear view that this is a growing and increasingly attractive beef export opportunity for everybody […] Read more
Public flocks to livestock open house
It’s not easy to explain a year’s worth of research in 13 minutes, but agricultural scientists at the University of Manitoba recently gave it the old college try. On Sept. 25, the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment (NCLE) hosted its first open house at the university’s Glenlea Research Station 15 kilometres south of […] Read more
Age proof comes athigh cost
After a lifetime in the beef business, Brian Nilsson has learned to follow the money. As co-chief executive officer of XL Foods with plants in Edmonton, Calgary, Moose Jaw, Sask., and Omaha, Nebraska, he has learned chasing lucrative markets outside the United States and Mexico carries extra costs. And Nilsson says the higher costs of […] Read more
Age ID vital: meat buyer
Mandatory age verification must be implemented if Canada hopes to do more business with Japan, says a leading Asian meat seller. “I have no doubt increasing the supply of Canadian beef by requiring ear tags with birth records should be the industry’s top priority today,” said Kunitaka Dan of the Japanese meat trading company Stamina […] Read more
Feral cattle present genetic opportunity
Tissue samples from feral cattle on a remote, uninhabited island off the southern coast of Alaska show that the animals are not related to common North American breeds. According to some accounts, Russian settlers first brought cattle to the Chirikof Island in the late 1700s, while others were shoved off ships and swam ashore periodically […] Read more
Hay may be pricey for some ranchers
Reduced forage supplies across Western Canada might force those who are short of hay to get rid of their cows rather than pay dearly to feed them. “The scuttlebutt is to a large extent, the farmers are saying they are not looking to buy replacement hay. They will reduce cow herds,” said Lonny Steward of […] Read more
Advocates latch onto food safety to push issue
For years, those against animal cruelty have fretted that Canada’s rules governing animals transported to slaughter are weak and poorly enforced. The angst notched up when a call by the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies that humane treatment of animals be a pillar of the new five-year national agricultural policy was ignored by federal and […] Read more
