Poor trailer design and transportation stress are killing pigs and costing the pork industry millions of dollars in penalties, meat quality downgrades and failed welfare audits, according to research by a federal scientist.
Tag Archives transportation
Hogs’ transport stress called costly
Popular trailer designs and driver behaviour also increase pig stress during transportation, says Agriculture Canada researcher
Grain movement looks good but faces challenges
Lower crop prices slowed deliveries at the beginning of the 2023-24 year, while railways struggled with labour issues
SASKATOON — Grain movement has been on track this crop year despite some challenges, but it hasn’t been as good as last year, according to Canada’s grain monitor. “There has been so much stuff that has happened this year that has confounded the movement,” said Quorum Corp. president Mark Hemmes. The first challenge was the […] Read more
‘Whack-a-mole’ approach carries major ag risks
Prairie agricultural commodities must be able to reach tidewater or there won’t be an industry. It’s as simple as that. That is why a recent presentation by Carlo Dade of the Canada West Foundation is so alarming. The director of the foundation’s Trade and Investment Centre told the CrossRoads Crop Conference in Calgary that Canada […] Read more
More strategic planning urged for trade infrastructure
Canada moved from being in the world’s top 10 in 2009 in terms of transportation infrastructure to 32nd place in 2019
CALGARY — Canada needs to get off its “whack-a-mole treadmill” and take national co-ordinated action to reverse a years-long decline in its transportation infrastructure system that producers rely on to reach global markets, says an expert. “Canada is unique among major exporting countries in not having this … national capacity to understand our system and […] Read more
Railways insist they are prepared for winter
Government required capital spending justification for optimism
Canada’s major railways have filed their winter contingency plans as required by law. Since a new law was passed in 2018, Canada’s major rail companies are required to publish winter plans and can be forced to pay up if they fail to deliver on certain promises of rail cars. That law came into effect after […] Read more
Transportation bill in peril as it stalls in Senate
Western grain shippers are getting nervous as Bill C-49 sits in the Senate with diminishing chances it will receive royal assent before Christmas. The Transportation Modernization Act received third reading in the House of Commons and moved to the Senate Nov. 2. Since then, it has been stalled at the second reading stage. Both houses […] Read more
Transportation bill heads to the Senate
A federal bill aimed at improving Canada’s transportation systems and ensuring better rail service for shippers passed third reading in the House of Commons Wednesday and is off to the Senate. If passed, the Transportation Modernization Act will provide greater certainty for western Canadian grain shippers that depend on Canadian railway companies to transport grain […] Read more
Logistics park planned for Oyen, Alta.
The town of Oyen, in east central Alberta, will be home to a proposed new transload and rail logistics facility. Sources say construction on the Oyen Rail Yard & Logistics Park will begin this fall. The 155-acre facility is billed as a multi-phase economic development project, to be managed by Alberta’s Special Areas Board, the […] Read more
Amendments proposed to transportation legislation
Canadian agricultural organizations have proposed amendments to the federal transportation modernization act even as they urge swift passage and royal assent. The amendments, developed through the Crop Logistics Working Group, were presented to the House standing committee on transportation last week. The committee reconvened a week before Parliament’s regular sitting to hold hearings on Bill […] Read more
Canadian National Railway sets new grain hauling record
The company exceeded its previous record by two percent, handling 21.8 million tonnes of grain and oilseeds in 2016-17
Canada’s largest railway company moved record volumes of western Canadian grain in the 2016-17 crop year, despite a slow start to the shipping season caused by wet weather that delayed prairie harvesting operations last fall. Canadian National Railway shipped 21.8 million tonnes of western Canadian grain and oilseeds in 2016-17, roughly two percent more than […] Read more
