It’s tough to talk about the cattle markets and not focus solely on the demand side which, if we’re being honest, has been nothing short of impressive. But price is a function of two components — supply being the balance to demand. While Canada’s beef herd continues to contract, ranchers in the United States have... Read More
Category: Cattle
Livestock producers in Western Canada who have downsized their herds due to drought and feed shortages will be allowed to defer income from the sale of breeding stock when paying income tax. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz today released a list of designated regions in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba where tax deferrals have been... Read More
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Ed Fast announced this week that the Government of Canada has opened the Ukrainian market for beef from cattle under 30 months (UTM) and ready-to-eat meat. This new market access marks follows the lifting of Ukraine’s ban on Canadian beef products in 2014. Canadian beef and ready-to-eat... Read More
There’s potential for much more composting in North American farming, say researchers at the University of Manitoba. “Turning waste into gold” was the theme for the annual field day at the U of M’s Glenlea Research Farm last week. Mario Tenuta, soil ecologist at the University of Manitoba, describes the value of farm-scale composting of... Read More
There's no doubt that having a vaccination protocol on hand could save booster misses, bring all farm employees to the same page and improve overall confidence in our herd health programs. But, developing that protocol can be more than a little overwhelming. At the 2015 UCVM Beef Cattle Conference, I (finally!) tracked down Cody Creelman,... Read More
Anyone with an eye on mainstream media or the meat shelves in the grocery store won’t be surprised to hear that the average beef retail price has hit another record high, weighing in at $19.69/kg. “That’s up 3% from last month, but more importantly i think — this is what people are going to hone... Read More
Saskatchewan farmers have an extra 15 days to plant greenfeed crops and still receive crop insurance coverage. The federal and provincial agriculture ministers announced the deadline has been pushed back from June 30th to July 15th in hopes it will help mitigate a potential feed shortage. “The lack of moisture through the spring and so... Read More
Last month, TMX Group announced the launch of a new, web-based subsidiary to connect U.S. and Canadian cattle producers in an online marketplace, called AgriClear. “Today’s launch of AgriClear represents an important opportunity for TMX Group to apply the depth of expertise we have across our business lines to address client needs in a new... Read More
Note: There are a couple of rather graphic pictures in this post. Audio included at the end. Losing an animal to any sort of predation can be incredibly difficult to stomach, and a lot of times completely unexpected. The scenes we typically imagine in the wild are those of peace, where cattle low, birds sing,... Read More
There are few things on livestock operations more difficult than deciding whether or not to euthanize an animal. And according to Jan Shearer, professor at Iowa State University, we tend to let that decision go on way too long. Shearer was a speaker at this year’s UCVM Beef Cattle Conference pre-conference, where he spoke on... Read More