Livestock Management
REGINA – The Robb brothers have had a good fall with high prices and praise when they enter the show ring, but on the farm at Maidstone, Sask., they get back to the business of providing good bulls to commercial beef producers. The family has been in the Simmental business since the 1970s when Gary […] Read more
Livestock Management
Simmental buyers like tradition
U.S. steers do well at Agribition
Tony Heins came close to tears as he described his first sale at Canadian Western Agribition. The rancher from Wing, North Dakota, had been to the annual show before but this year marked the first time he brought his own cattle. All three of his Rocking H Livestock steers took first in their classes, and […] Read more
Charolais set for comeback
REGINA – It’s time for cattle producers to start using white bulls again, says the president of the Canadian Charolais Association. “It is time to own more cows and it is time for new breeders,” said Cameron Sparrow, adding that the commercial beef industry needs more Charolais-sired calves to improve rates of gain because packers […] Read more
Australian cattle producers test unique Canadian breed
REGINA – This time next year there will be Speckle Park calves on the ground in Australia. After a sales team bought two bulls at Canadian Western Agribition in 2006, semen and embryos were collected to introduce the distinct breed Down Under. At this year’s Agribition, the Speckle Park Australia Partners Ltd. sold back the […] Read more
Superbug found in Ont. pigs, farmers
The European strain of a methicillin-resistant superbug has been discovered in Ontario pigs and pig farmers, according to an associate professor at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College. Dr. Scott Weese, a pathobiologist who worked on the study recently published in the journal Veterinary Microbiology, said methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aurea, commonly known as MRSA, causes […] Read more
Vaccination program pays to help control diseases
Swine producers will receive financial help to launch a new vaccination program aimed at lowering hog death rates. Farmers will be reimbursed up to 50 percent for diagnostic testing and vaccination of hogs exposed to porcine circovirus associated diseases (PCVAD2) as part of a $25 million Circovirus Inoculation Program. John Harding, associate professor of swine […] Read more
Controversy in the air at Farmfair
EDMONTON – Tina Wagers couldn’t believe her eyes. On the day of the Angus sale at Farmfair International she watched her two-year-old Charolais cow slowly turn black. Aerosol spray paint used by Angus breeders to darken and shine their cattle drifted across the barns like a fog. “We watched them turn from white to grey. […] Read more
Pint-sized showman takes prize with bull
EDMONTON – At seven years of age, Reid DePalme may have been the littlest showman at Farmfair International in Edmonton. The second grader from Red Deer, who stole hearts with his tenacious handling of his calf, walked away with reserve bull calf champion at the Salers show, competing against a large class of more experienced […] Read more
Winning smiles prevail at Alberta’s Farmfair
EDMONTON – Rob and Gail Hamilton of Cochrane, Alta., were three times lucky at this year’s grand finale cattle show at Farmfair International. The Hamilton Farms group of cattle won the Legends of the Fall bull calf show, Supreme Breeder’s Herd and Supreme Show of Champions female. “This is unbelievable. It’s a dream come true,” […] Read more
Small breed gets own show
EDMONTON – Brenda and Brian Chicoine of Storthoaks, Sask., have big cattle, but they prefer their little ones. This year, for the first time, they got to show off their Lowline cattle in the breed’s own show at Farmfair International. Six Lowline breeders from British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan brought 43 animals to Farmfair’s first […] Read more
