As Canada’s pork industry prepares to increase emphasis on domestic sales, a study on value chain management suggests the industry has to change its outlook to make the most of the domestic market. The industry has relied too much on trying to compete on low prices and high volumes rather than selling the other value […] Read more
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Pork industry told it’s missing out on domestic markets
Ministers consider hog plan
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. – Even as hog industry leaders told agriculture ministers last week the ticking sound they heard was the industry’s doomsday clock, ministers refused to commit to an immediate aid plan. The Canadian Pork Council has proposed loans, extended payback times and buyout money to get some of the industry through its worst crisis […] Read more
Sask. River basin in good shape
There is enough water in the Saskatchewan River basin to support the three million people living within the region but the resource must be properly managed, a study says. A three year project commissioned by the Partners for the Saskatchewan River Basin looked at the quality and quantity of the rivers that pass through the […] Read more
Canada officially challenges S. Korea at WTO
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. – Canada has requested a World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel to resolve a six-year dispute with South Korea over its refusal to allow imports of Canadian beef. Federal cabinet ministers last week were confidently predicting a Canadian victory, although it could take several years to complete the process. “We know Canadian beef […] Read more
Producer input needed in ag policy
MOOSE JAW, Sask. – Effective agricultural policy has to come from the grassroots, farm leaders said at a conference here last week. As farm organizations and individuals work to develop what they think is appropriate and approach it from different philosophical and political viewpoints, agreement seems unlikely. But everyone agrees that something has to change. […] Read more
New flu not seen before
A new influenza strain detected in two Saskatchewan hog barn workers is not related to the H1N1 pandemic strain, provincial health and veterinary officials said last week. The virus, dubbed novel non-pandemic influenza A, has not affected any hogs. Provincial chief medical health officer Moira McKinnon said the virus is a combination of seasonal human […] Read more
Hydrogen on the horizon
Paul Trella of New Holland has watched his industry shift its fuel research focus from energy pumped from the earth to energy grown in the earth and now to energy from what surrounds the earth. “Farmers have a long history of running their machinery on what they could afford and what was available to them,” […] Read more
G8 eyes 2010 for trade deal
Leaders of the G8 group of developed economies pledged to conclude the seven-year-old round of world trade talks by the end of next year. At the July 10 close of the three-day summit in Italy last week, chair and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said a liberalizing trade agreement is needed to help pull the […] Read more
ALMA gets birthday report card
The Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency was supposed to help pull the livestock industry out of its slump. A year ago, when Alberta agriculture minister George Groeneveld established ALMA, he said a more focused approach to government and industry spending, along with $56 million in start-up funding, would help boost the livestock industry. The strategy […] Read more
Farm plan’s demise puzzles farmers
Like many farmers, Bruce Quadrelli is regularly perplexed by government decisions. As an example, Manitoba and federal governments used to offer a program to help producers develop an environmental farm plan. The program was a huge success and popular with farmers, but in March 2008 the Canada-Manitoba Farm Stewardship program was cancelled. The program was […] Read more
