Alberta politics
New deputy ag minister has law background
Jason Krips will replace John Knapp as Alberta’s deputy minister of agriculture, effective Sept. 30.
Krips is not an unfamiliar face to agriculture in Alberta. He was executive assistant to then agriculture minister Doug Horner from 2004-06 and was Horner’s executive assistant in the advanced education and technology ministry from 2006-08.
Krips, a lawyer, worked with the firm of Wilson & Hurlburt and joined the Alberta government in 2000 as the legislative manager with the department of government services. In 2004 he became director of research and analysis with the Policy Co-ordination Office of Executive Council.
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Most recently he served as assistant deputy minister for international relations in the international and intergovernmental relations ministry.
John Knapp was appointeddeputy minister in 2008 and remained in the post until he retired this year.
Knapp was a district agriculturalist, sheep specialist and regional director before moving to Edmonton as director of the animal industry division and then the rural services division.
U.S. weather
Neutral conditions seen through February
(Reuters) — A U.S. weather forecaster says it still expects neutral conditions to continue through February 2014 in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Climate Prediction Center’s outlook in its monthly report was based on its assessment of the past four weeks, reducing the chance that the La Nina or El Nino weather patterns would form before next year’s planting season.
Last month, the CPC, an office under the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, said extreme weather would be unlikely to occur into the Northern Hemisphere spring next year.
Beef industry
Cargill investsin beef plant
CHICAGO, Ill. (Reuters) — Cargill Inc. will invest $48 million to build an automated order distribution centre to support its beef processing plant in Dodge City, Kansas.
The distribution centre will hold 155,000 boxes of beef, increasing the capacity at Dodge City by 130,000 boxes, the company said.
Construction will begin in the fourth quarter of 2013, with the centre expected to open in the spring of 2015, it said.
The Dodge City plant slaughters 6,000 head of cattle daily and supplies beef products to retail, food service and processed food customers in the United States and globally.
Cargill said it has made similar investments at its beef processing plants in Schuyler, Nebraska, Friona, Texas, and High River, Alta.
