Livestock Management
LEDUC, Alta. – Alberta hog producers need their own specialized marketing company and their own pork brand if they’re to survive. Those are two recommendations made in a recent proposal to help the industry as it struggles with high feed prices and low hog prices. “This is indeed a difficult situation and we didn’t get […] Read more
Livestock Management
Alta. unveils hog recovery plan
Hog manure can triple livestock productivity
A study that suggests animal productivity triples when hog manure is applied to grazing land has stunned researchers at the University of Manitoba. “It wasn’t a surprise that the manure would increase productivity, but to see threefold increase in productivity was absolutely amazing to me,” said Don Flaten, a soil science professor at the U […] Read more
Managed grazing fights drought
Before rain drenched dry parts of Manitoba last weekend, many ranchers were wondering where the grass to feed their cattle was going to come from. Trevor Atchison, who has practised rotational grazing since the early 1990s on his farm near Deleau, Man., said he has seen real benefits on his operation this spring, as cool, […] Read more
Purebred sheep producer sells 90-head flock
KRONAU, Sask. – After 13 years in the sheep business, Dallas Turner is ready for a break. He figures the easiest way to do that is to sell his entire purebred flock. “I’m temporarily getting out,” he said last week while waiting for shearers to arrive at his farm southeast of Regina. “I want to […] Read more
Farm awash in twins
Russell Koch has had eight sets of twins in his cow herd this spring. He has only 15 cows. “It’s very uncommon to have that many in such a small herd,” Koch said last week from his farm in the central Saskatchewan Rural Municipality of Viscount. The veterinarian in nearby Humboldt says twins occur in […] Read more
Producers use cull program
Prairie pork producers have submitted applications to cull almost 35,000 sows under the federal program announced in November. As of May 12, Alberta producers had submitted 69 applications for 13,000 animals. About 3,000 of those have yet to be slaughtered. In Manitoba, 66 producers have submitted applications for 13,800 animals. About 5,800 are still to […] Read more
Better piglet price reduces cull
A sharp rise in weanling prices has quieted plans for a piglet cull in Manitoba. In early April, the threat of U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) had pushed prices down to $5 per weanling, based on reports from Manitoba farmers. At an April 3 meeting in Steinbach, Man., during the height of the price crisis, […] Read more
Cattle show targets youth
OLDS, Alta. – For 10-year-old Kathryn Dolliver, it was an opportunity to hone her cattle skills, while for 21-year-old Stacey Young, it was her last hurrah in the show ring. They were among 98 people aged 10 to 21 from British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan who entered the first holding of Canada’s richest youth steer […] Read more
Hog study details root of Alta. ‘financial crisis’
Problems facing Alberta’s hog producers are black and white and not pretty. The Way Forward, a 180-page special report on the troubles facing Alberta’s hog industry, doesn’t sugar coat the problems. “It clearly laid out what we have to deal with to maintain a viable pork industry,” said Alberta Pork executive director Paul Hodgman. Seeing […] Read more
E. coli vaccine gets tentative OK
Canada and the United States have granted conditional approval for an E. coli vaccine for cattle. Both governments want more tests to prove it works before full licensing is approved. Testing the drug’s effectiveness is difficult because it does not protect animal health. Instead, it prevents the spread of E. coli O157:H7, which has the […] Read more
