A WTO ruling from late in 2011 sided with Canada, among other countries, that U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) regulation was “inconsistent with its WTO trade obligations.” But instead of amending the labeling requirements in time for the late may deadline, the US has seemingly upped the ante, and will now being to add… Read More
Canada’s Competition Bureau has approved the sale of Puratone Corporation to Maple Leaf Foods and Big Sky Farms to Olymel in a major step towards consolidation of Canada’s and especially Western Canada’s hog industry. The bureau said in a statement: “the Bureau concluded that the mergers were unlikely to lead to a substantial lessening or… Read More
For those who didn’t tune in this weekend to an episode of CTV’s W5 on “factory farming”, let me sum it up for you: according to the episode hog farmers are heartless, sadist wretches that abuse and mistreat all their animals. While attacks and misinformation on and about farming practices aren’t rare, this particular program… Read More
Soil is a magnificent thing. It’s the medium that makes crop production possible. It’s also rather mysterious. Even now, scientists are just beginning to scratch the surface of naming all the microbes that live in soil and understanding their functions and interactions. There’s also much we do know and understand about soil and its ability… Read More
The hog industry in Western Canada has been knocked to its knees in recent months by high feed prices and negative margins. A large hog breeder, producer and feed company — Manitoba-based Puratone Corporation — is in the process of being bought by Maple Leaf Foods, the company’s largest hog buyer. Amidst the fall out… Read More
Maple Leaf Foods has announced it will buy the Puratone Corporation, the cash-strapped Manitoba hog production company, for approximately $42 million. The purchase includes Puratone’s livestock, facilities and interests in some joint ventures. The transaction is expected to close within a month, subject to court and regulatory approvals, according to a news release. . “This… Read More
Quebec-based Olymel has officially made a bid for Big Sky Farms, the Saskatchewan-based hog producer that recently entered receivership. Olymel has made a bid of $65 million to purchase the company. If successful, it’s likely operations would not change significantly, as Olymel processed much of Big Sky’s production. While this is the only current bid,… Read More
The price of corn is something that’s weighing heavy on the minds of producers right now. Not producers only, but everyone affected either directly or indirectly with the crop is wondering where corn will top out and where it’s headed as we look to 2013. In this episode of the Corn School, Moe Agostino of… Read More
Hog production in Western Canada had a rough go this week. First, Big Sky Farms entered receivership — for the second time in less than four years — then, just yesterday, Puratone Corporation filed for creditor protection. It is not a good time to be a hog farmer, with reported losses per hog ranging from… Read More
Niverville, Manitoba-based Puratone Corporation is the second major hog producer in as many weeks to hit the skids, Harry Siemens reports . Puratone filed for creditor protection today, after the board of directors agreed it was the only viable alternatives given the present financial state of the company. Puratone is a major hog supplier to Maple… Read More
Humboldt, Saskatchewan-based Big Sky Farms, one of the largest hog producers in Canada, entered into receivership this week, according to a story on Pembina Valley Online. Big Sky Farms is the latest company to suffer from extremely high feed costs. As discussed last week on RealAgriculture.com, the hog industry is in trouble in Western Canada…. Read More
Pork producers in Canada continue to take a beating as what looked like a period of profitable production was turned on its head by high corn prices. Some producers who didn’t lock in some kind of a contract price are getting out while they can, selling their stock at a loss to avoid even greater… Read More
This week Ray Prock (California Dairy farmer), Kelly Rivard (farm blogger), Jim Doolittle (agronomist), and Michael Yezzi (pig farmer) participated in a segment on Huffington Post Live discussing the US corn drought of 2012. See the segment here. Besides the fact that the host pronounces bushels incorrectly the segment is a really good first hand account of how bad… Read More
According to the Edmonton Journal, Brett Wilson and a group of former Viewtrack creditors have taken full control of Edmonton based company. According to Brett Wilson (from the Edmonton Journal story) “The company was cash-flow neutral but couldn’t service the debenture debt,” said Wilson. “It had been bumping along for the last year and a… Read More
Do you eat as much meat as you used to? Many people in North America do say no, yet the the US still eats the second highest amount of meat per capita in the world according to the Economist. The average American consumers 276 pounds of meat per year while Personally I still love… Read More
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