February 23, 2012

Is Canada Prepared for Massive Amounts of Farmer Retirements?

Harvest combine

Christie Young is the Executive Director of FarmSmart and this week she has created some stir within the Canadian Agriculture industry by saying that our industry is not prepared for the coming mass farmer retirements.  What has really caused the stir is her statement that the government has some sort of responsibility to ensure we prepare [...]

Macleans Surveys People on “Abolishing Supply Management”

Macleans Magazine website has been surveying the general public on the future of supply management. With Primeminister Harper suggesting that all things are on the table, the media has really picked up the debate on the future of supply management in Canada. Vote in the Macleans Poll With Harper suggesting taht everything is on the [...]

Water Supply Challenges for Rural Alberta – Melissa Orr, Alberta Agriculture & Rural Development

prairie_dugout crop

Over the past few years, rural Alberta has seen some expansion. Some are people from other provinces or abroad who found work here, some are children of farmers going into business for themselves, and some just want out of the city. Many of those people dream about a quiet country life, away from the noise [...]

Are Farms Becoming Too Leveraged?

kevin_stewart

In early January, I was fortunate to be invited to be involved in a panel discussion on AgVisonTV hosted by Kevin Stewart.  The topic was farm debt and was it was a great experience.  I was joined on the panel by Dr. George Brinkman, a retired agricultural economist at Guelph University and Dina Cover, an Economist at [...]

Questions from Ranchers and Cattle Feeders – Gordon Cove, CEO of ALMA

This is part two of my interview with the President and CEO of the Alberta Livestock Meat Agency (ALMA), Gordon Cove.  In this interview I asked questions provided to me by producers.  I gathered questions from Twitter and Agriville and asked them in no particular order to Mr. Cove.  I would suggest that many people at the [...]

Gordon Cove – The Strategic Priorities of Alberta Livestock Meat Agency (ALMA)

cove_gordon

I was fortunate earlier this week to meet with the President & CEO of the Alberta Livestock Meat Agency, Gordon Cove. My interview is broken into two parts and I hope that you find it interesting and look upon it objectively.  No matter where your meat politics reside you have to admit that the Alberta [...]

SiemensSays.com – Jim Long President of Genesus Genetics €“ Our Observations

The following article was originally from SiemensSays.com. I think it is a very insightful analysis into the recent announcements in the pork industry. Loan guarantees will help some producers. But, what is the criteria for a viable hog operation? The Canadian industry is currently losing $30 million a week. The situation is deteriorating daily. The [...]

Hog Support is a Struggle in Manitoba

Talking to hog producers in Manitoba, there is a real head scratching issue taking place. Hog producers are strongly criticizing the provincial government for not stepping up to compensate hog farmers for this terrible economic environment. The province think that it is a Federal government issue but others disagree. My friend journalism friend Harry Siemens [...]

Alberta To Launch Cattle Price Insurance Program – Susan Crump of AFSC

I have been getting a number of calls from feedlot producers to discuss the new Cattle Price Insurance Program (CPIP) that will be launched by AFSC this summer for Albertan cattle feeders. I talked to Susan Crump, Senior Project Manager, Program Development and Policy at AFSC about some of the preliminary details of the coming [...]

Gerry Ritz Visits Lethbridge for a Producer Roundtable

Yesterday, Rick Cassson, MP Lethbridge hosted Federal Agricultural Minister, Gerry Ritz in Lethbridge.  On top of serving at the Farm Credit Canada Breakfast at Ag Expo and meeting with a farmer round table, Ritz also announced 15.5 million in funding for the Canadian Triticale Biorefiniery Initiative.  I participated in the farmer round table where all twenty of the [...]