Lamb is still considered a niche market in Canada, but unlike some other red meat, consumption is on the rise. Once largely thought of as only a choice for the 'ethnic' food market or special holidays, SunGold Specialty Meats out of Alberta is looking to increase lamb consumption by all Canadian consumers. As Kurt Paskal,... Read More
Category: Eastern Canada
The federal government has announced it's dropping the four-year cumulative duration requirement — also known as the "four-in, four-out" rule — from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) effectively immediately. It's welcome news for agricultural employers and farm groups. “The feedback we received from agricultural stakeholders is very supportive of these changes," noted Portia MacDonald-Dewhirst,... Read More
Ontario dairy farmers had their first opportunity to plant low-lignin alfalfa in 2016. In this episode of the Real Agriculture Dairy School we visit with Elmira, Ontario, dairy farmer Dale Martin and PRIDE Seeds market agronomist Aaron Stevanus to get the lowdown on low-lignin alfalfa. Martin harvested his first crop HarvXtra low-lignin alfalfa with Roundup... Read More
John Deere has unveiled its first electric high-power tractor ahead of the upcoming SIMA agriculture show in France. Built on the chassis of Deere's 6R tractors, the SESAM (Sustainable Energy Supply for Agricultural Machinery) prototype features a set of 130kW lithium-ion batteries which power two independent 150 kW electric motors, producing the equivalent of roughly... Read More
If it's done right, deep ripping can help address a compaction problem in the field, but if you're not careful, it can also make it worse. As with any kind of tillage, you have the potential of breaking up soil aggregates with a deep ripper or subsoiler, but that's not all, notes Aaron Daigh, soil... Read More
Is Shaun Haney unknowingly biased? Why is agriculture so very short on good people to fill jobs — from the farm level to the corporate office? Portia MacDonald-Dewhirst joins (the possibly-biased) Haney to talk about recent research by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council that outlined the huge personnel gap in farming and agriculture processing.... Read More
A prediction earlier this week from a Canadian academic suggested Donald Trump’s presidency would cause food prices in Canada to rise in 2017. Here’s why. To make America great again, Trump has said he’s going to deport illegal immigrant workers. If he succeeds, that effort will include getting rid of the ballooning number of illegal... Read More
Growing soybeans in Ontario in 2016 was a real nail biter. Even Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs soybean specialist Horst Bohner admits to being pretty nervous as the soybean crop struggled through a dry July. Many farmers were lucky when rains arrived in August, but a good portion of the province –... Read More
Food prices in Canada are forecast to rise between 3 and 5 percent in 2017 — larger than last year's price increase and higher than what is considered as "acceptable" food inflation, according to the 7th edition of Canada's Food Price Report. Led by Sylvain Charlebois, food distribution and policy professor at Dalhousie University, the... Read More
By Matt McIntosh, Farm & Food Care “Feeding the world” is a common slogan in agricultural circles being employed to illustrate everything from growing population challenges to the need for new technology. Unfortunately, it’s also a phrase that doesn’t really work, and not because people don’t care. While it’s true many Canadians are not overly... Read More