A biosecurity and animal disease prevention company based at Guelph, Ontario has announced it’s merging with a U.S.-based company that has developed a facial recognition entry system for barns. Farm Health Guardian Ltd. and NoveTechnologies, LLC (NoveTech) say they have combined forces as of June 5, 2023, and will operate under the Farm Health Guardian… Read More
Author: RealAgriculture Livestock Team
A super thin plastic that creates an effective oxygen barrier for improving aerobic stability of any kind of silage is the promise of Germany-based silage specialists, Bock Silosysteme. Earlier this year, company representatives travelled to the annual dairy showcase Canadian Dairy XPO at Stratford, Ont., to share the product with farmers. Bock was one of… Read More
Cattle markets have held their own over the last week, with prime grilling season underway heading into the Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. and Father’s Day around the corner. U.S. cattle prices this week ranged from one to three dollars higher, from south to north, explains Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange in… Read More
The Beef Cattle Research Council has announced twelve recipients of $2 million in beef check-off funds following its 2022/2023 call for research proposals. The check-off money is being used to leverage over $4 million in matching funding from government and other partners. “We are able to leverage producer dollars from the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-Off… Read More
The Canadian pork industry continues to face roadblocks in rebuilding pork demand and prices, highlighted by the closure of the Olymel processing plant in Vallée-Jonction, Quebec and a HyLife plant in Minnesota. Stephen Heckbert, executive director of the Canadian Pork Council (CPC), says the closures don’t necessarily need to be in Canada to impact the… Read More
This weekend marks the 20 year anniversary of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or more commonly known as BSE, being found in an Alberta cow, leading to the historic crash in the Canadian cattle industry. Dennis Laycraft, executive vice president of the Canadian Cattle Association, was on the front lines, and recalls the process that began with… Read More
Nathan Phinney, now president of the Canadian Cattle Association, was just finished university and ready to ship some fat cattle for a decent pay day when the BSE news hit. The beef producer from New Brunswick says the impact of the BSE finding in 2003 was a “crippling blow” to not just cattle prices, but… Read More
Can the production rules of one state wag the (curly) tail of pork trade for an entire country? If the state is California, the answer is: it’s possible. Prop 12, first passed in the state in 2018 and then upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court this week, sets out space requirements for livestock in production… Read More
The immediate impact of finding a BSE-positive cow in Alberta in 2003 was swift and brutal. Overnight, Canada’s export market evaporated and prices for cattle, especially older animals, tanked. As we look back on the decades that have followed, the longer-lasting impacts have been monumental, but not necessarily as clear. To dive in to what… Read More
As the growing season really gets going across North America, we’re starting to see a little more hope on where the grass is growing, and there’s a bit more optimism out there in the pasture — especially in southwestern Saskatchewan, which has faced multiple years of hard drought and where this week’s Beef Market Update… Read More
German feeding equipment maker BvL is bringing its brand of total mixed rations to Canadian dairy farms. The Emsbüren, Germany-based manufacturer has struck an agreement with their Canadian distributor, Fergus, Ontario’s Grand River Robotics to represent and sell the company’s TMR mixers. BvL showcased their technology last month at the Canadian Dairy XPO at Stratford,… Read More
Jodie Aldred loves to take pictures, and she’s turning her passion for farm snap shots into a burgeoning business. After growing up on her family’s beef cow-calf and cash crop farm at West Lorne, Ont., like many farm kids, Aldred headed off to the corporate world. But it wasn’t long before the pictures of life… Read More
Holstein Canada has launched a new app to make it easier for producers to submit genomic test samples and complete registration for Holstein animals directly from their mobile phone or tablet. Holstein Canada education and extension specialist Murilo Carvalho says the ConneXXion app was designed in response to producer requests for technology to help simplify… Read More
This article is courtesy of the Beef Cattle Research Council, and was first published on the BCRC blog, here. Did you know that heifers take longer to start cycling after having their first calf than mature cows do? It means lining up the calving season for a cow’s second calving requires that heifers be bred… Read More
Alberta’s government says its Rangeland Grazing Framework recognizes the role ranchers play in managing Crown rangelands. The new framework is intended to provide clarity on how grazing fits in to integrated land management of public land leased or permitted to ranchers for grazing livestock. “Our ranchers have long been stewards of our rangelands, and their… Read More