At the Tiffin Conference at the Lethbridge College, one of the most popular speakers was Ryan Kasko from the Kasko Cattle Co. Ryan talked about his 2008 trip to Brazil and what some of his observations were. Ryan travelled to Brazil and visited ranches and feedyards. Ryan talks about the fact that Brazilian beef tastes… Read More
Category: Livestock
Now that we have flipped the calendar into 2010 we can leave 2009 behind us and look forward to a year of prosperity for ranchers and cattle feeders right? I’m not sure if it is that easy but it seems that the flip to the new decade has brought some fresh optimism and willingness to give it… Read More
Last week was a brutal week in terms of cattle pricing and the question is starting to loom, what will 2010 bring the business. The feeding and ranching industry needs some relief from the financial pressure that has been experienced over the last twelve months. Had it not been for the currency trade gains in 2008,… Read More
Based on the economic turmoil that the hog industry has been in over recent years, it is no surprise that barns have been de-populated and the industry has retrenched. One of the major events in recent months has been Big Sky Farms entering creditor protection. Big Sky is the largest hog operation in Saskatchewan and to say this is a… Read More
This fall is proving to test the real intestinal fortitude of the cattleman in the United States and Canada. With feeding losses mounting and demand not recovering in the early winter months, the outlook looks extremely strained. Traditionally cattleman have been internal optimists but this turn of feeding has challenged all of that and more…. Read More
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… Read More
When an industry struggles financially, it becomes necessary to re-evaluate how business is done. The beef industry has struggled since the discovery of BSE in 2003 and the pork industry has felt the financial pain from the H1N1 pandemic. One solution being circulated in the coffee shops across the country is to make either of… Read More
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… Read More
Anne Dunford of the Gateway Livestock Exchange breaks down the recent bounce off the bottom for the cattle market and whether or not she can see this market continuing upward into December and the spring. See Past Beef Market Updates
This was originally written by Lillian Schaer on her blog “Food and Farming Canada“ This post is a continuation from yesterday€™s H1N1 topic that explored Alberta Pork€™s experiences at the centre of the H1N1 media storm earlier this year. The information is based on a presentation I attended by Lee Funke of Torque Communications at… Read More
In this installment of the beef market update, Anne Dunford of the Gateway Livestock Exchange talks about the impact of the surging Canadian dollar. Anne talks about the familiarity of this story referencing what happened in the fall of 2007 and whether it will happen again. There has been a lot of discussion about the… Read More
At the Elanco Beef Consultants Forum this month I had the chance to interview Dr. Daryl Tatum, a meat scientist from Colorado State University. We had a chance to chat about some of the issues with the gap between consumers and producers with meat quality and production. Dr.Tatum addressees the issue of the industry achieving efficiencies and… Read More
There was a time when agriculture and food were sacred topics to the public. People were either on the farm or one generation removed which instilled a connection to the source of the food that we eat. In the past five years that has definitely changed as many food activists have begun attacking the large… Read More
This month I attended the Elanco Beef Consultants forum which included invited vets and beef nutritionists from across Canada and the Northern US. After two days of interacting with this segment of the industry one thing is firmly clear to me. These people deeply care about their customers. Much of the scheduled sessions and informal… Read More
Dave Zino is the Executive Director of the NCBA Beef Culinary Center in Chicago. I had a chance to meet Dave at the Elanco Beef Consultants Forum 2009 in Banff earlier this month. Dave is a truly fascinating guy who has a real passion for how beef is cooked and trying to educate the public… Read More