Jack Moerman has seen the best of times and the worst of times during his 30 years of raising hogs in Alberta. He considers the past five years to be among the worst. Moerman, vice-chair of Alberta Pork, is a partner in a 300-sow, farrow-to-wean operation. He said the venture is barely staying viable and […] Read more
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Hog industry on pins and needles
B.C. bison promoters pursue investors for processing plant
GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. – A group of northern British Columbia bison ranchers is searching for more investors to help boost sales of buffalo meat. The Northern B.C. Buffalo Co. hopes money from another 10 investors will be enough to allow them to develop a marketing strategy to sell their bison sausage and meat across the […] Read more
Eastern cattle visit west after BSE closes border
REGINA – While no one has said “Go west, young heifer,” that could well apply to some of Canada’s best purebred cattle from the central and eastern provinces. In any other November, many purebred producers from Ontario and Quebec would be in Louisville, Kentucky, showing their cattle at the North American International Livestock Exposition rather […] Read more
University adds rural campus
Students from rural Alberta wanting to attend university may have a more attractive option in further education than being part of a large city campus. The University of Alberta has signed a letter of intent to have Augustana University College in Camrose become one of its faculties. Rod Fraser, president of the U of A, […] Read more
Ontario ag minister ready to deal with feds
TORONTO – Steve Peters, Ontario’s new Liberal minister of agriculture, says it is time to improve agricultural relations with Ottawa, even as he insists he will stand up for the province’s interests. He wants to reassert Ontario’s role as a key agricultural player among the provinces. Peters wants to reverse years of increasingly testy relations […] Read more
Alta develops own cull cow aid program
The Alberta government has learned from the previous mistake of tying aid money to the slaughter of animals, says Alberta agriculture minister Shirley McClellan. Four days after the federal government announced a federal cull cow program tied to slaughter, Alberta announced its own mature animal aid program not tied to slaughter. “If we had gone […] Read more
BSE fuels uncertainty among rural Albertans
EDMONTON – There is a sense of uncertainty in the rural community about what will happen in the cattle industry, said an Alberta rural municipal councillor. John Kolk said while there are fewer specific questions about how an Alberta cow contracted bovine spongiform encephalopathy, there is still a sense of how long the ripple effects […] Read more
Deadline nears for first phase of BSE aid
As the Saskatchewan agriculture department gears up to deliver another BSE-related compensation program, officials are still processing applications to earlier programs. Financial programs director Dave Boehm said last week he had few details on the new cull compensation program even though the department would be administering it. “We have an idea of what we think […] Read more
Vanclief ponders APF changes
In an effort to entice either Saskatchewan or Ontario to embrace the controversial agricultural policy framework, federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief is considering two changes long sought by critics. An aide to the minister said Nov. 21 that Ottawa has agreed to provincial requests that it consider adding negative margin, or operating loss, coverage to […] Read more
Manure may light up your life
Call it brown power. Various agencies, including the government of Canada, Alberta Research Council, Highland Feeders Ltd. and its subsidiary, Highmark Renewables, hope to begin turning cattle manure into energy by June 2004. The Integrated Manure Utilization System seeks to process the “high-solid” manure typical of most North American feedlots into fertilizer and reusable water, […] Read more
