China has loosened its restrictions on imports of Canadian beef, coinciding with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Ottawa this week. The premier announced Wednesday that China will begin accepting bone-in beef from Canadian cattle under 30 months of age — effective immediately — for the first time since BSE was found in Canada in… Read More
Category: Livestock
Economic times in the cattle industry have been very difficult lately. In coffee shops across Western Canada many have asked, how can some of these feedyards get through these losses? For one of Canada’s largest feeding operations that question was answered today. Western Feedlots Ltd. released a statement today disclosing they will be exiting the… Read More
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has announced a hunting and trapping ban on wolves and coyotes across 40 townships, effective immediately. Said to be a step towards protecting Ontario wolves, specifically the recently re-named Algonquin wolf, hunters and trappers will be banned from hunting or trapping wolves and coyotes in three additional districts: The… Read More
Three years ago Nuhn Industries’ first Lagoon Crawler emerged from the company’s Sebringville, Ontario plant. Today, the amphibious vehicle designed for agitating lagoons can be found on farms across North America and also in Russia and China. Real Agriculture caught the Lagoon Crawler in action last week at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock, Ontario…. Read More
A lot of angst is simmering in farm circles about the potential for disease to spread between wildlife and domestic livestock, such as poultry. The concerns are warranted, given how quickly disease can race through a herd and create huge losses. But new research from the University of Guelph into the health status of Ontario… Read More
A Saskatoon-based company known for its wireless grain cart (or buggy, if you prefer) weighing and data management system is bringing the technology to feed mixers in feedlots and dairies. Agrimatics will be introducing its Libra TMR (total mixed ration) system shortly, explained co-founder and CEO Ian Meier, as we caught up with him at… Read More
With every bounce off of a new low in the cattle market, there’s hope prices have finally bottomed out. October live cattle futures in the U.S. have recovered by $7-8 in the last week, after dropping to around the $100 mark in the first week of September. “Hopefully we can look back, and I know… Read More
The Alberta government is almost doubling its loan guarantee for cattle and sheep feeder associations in the province, following the record high cattle prices in 2014-15. Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier announced Wednesday that the guarantee limit in the Feeder Association Loan Guarantee Program will be raised from $55 million to $100 million. “The cattle and… Read More
A frustrating summer has come to a head over the last few weeks, as already-weak cattle prices are on a streak lower. Cash prices in the U.S. have fallen to $110 per hundred weight, notes Anne Wasko of Gateway Livestock. “That’s the lowest they’ve been in five years, and that’s five bucks off of last… Read More
According to the Western Canadian Cow Calf Survey completed in 2015, 72 percent of calves in Western Canada are sold at weaning, with 80 percent being sold via an auction market. The combination of stressors calves face in that short time from weaning to auction to entering a feedlot has major health and economic implications, says Brenna… Read More
Although he sees minor improvement in the cattle industry’s work towards mitigating the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), Cody Creelman, managing partner and DVM, Veterinary Agri-Health Services, says there’s much more work to be done to understand the extent of AMR. “There needs to be more dedicated research,” Creelman told RealAgriculture, in an interview filmed… Read More
We’ve all heard that phrase, often used to console in the gruff way most ranchers know best. “When you have livestock, you have deadstock.” But that phrase places too much emphasis on the notion that the death is out of our hands. It’s not. While we must not beat ourselves up for lost animals, there’s still something that… Read More
Draft horse competitors from all over Alberta were in Picture Butte last weekend for the Coyote Flats Harvest Days, competing in the horse log skid and horse pull. Our own Shaun Haney was at the pioneer celebration, hoping to get footage of some old tractors and the threshing show. But what he found to be… Read More
In my travels I have met many people that inspire through their words or efforts given certain adversities or situations. Age can be a real barrier for many people to continue to live out their passions. Age can be an excuse when some people feel older than they should — some people use age as… Read More
It’s an unusual case. Then again, it was an unusual incident. Most involving attention-seeking animal rights activists are. If you haven’t been following the case of an animal rights activist in Ontario giving water to a pig destined for slaughter, you’ve missed out on something that should shock you back to a changing world, far… Read More