Donald's Fine Foods, based in Richmond, B.C., is looking at developing the defunct XL foods beef plant in Moose Jaw into a sow processing facility. The company is conducting a feasibility study and gauging overall support from producers, the public, and government for creating a "technologically advanced sow processing facility serving Western Canadian hog producers,"... Read More
Category: Livestock
Alberta's agriculture minister is sharing new information regarding the cattle set-aside program that's being rolled out to address the backlog of cattle as processing capacity has been limited by COVID-19. A couple of weeks ago, the Alberta government announced they would be providing provincial funding in addition to the federal AgriRecovery funds for the set-aside... Read More
The Canadian Dairy XPO (CDX) has announced that its 2020 event, originally scheduled for April 1 and 2 and subsequently postponed, has now officially been cancelled. A statement from CDX says the final decision to cancel the Stratford, Ont., dairy industry showcase "was ultimately made by government and health officials with significant parameters around large-scale... Read More
There is no shortage of issues to discuss in the ag commodity complex, and our latest edition of RealAg LIVE! is here to cover the latest in market news, and answer everything you're wondering regarding the futures. On this Thursday edition of RealAg LIVE!, host Shaun Haney is joined by Zaner Ag Hedge's Chief Ag... Read More
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has created a temporary ministerial exemption process that opens the door to inter-provincial movement of meat and poultry products from establishments that are not federally-licensed. Normally, meat from provincially-inspected facilities is not allowed to be sold beyond a province's boundary, but the federal agency is offering an exemption if... Read More
Manitoba-based pork producer and processor HyLife is expanding its processing capacity with the acquisition of a slaughter plant in the U.S. The company says it is partnering with Glen Taylor, and purchasing a 75 per cent equity stake in Prime Pork LLC from the Taylor Corporation. Prime Pork operates a recently-renovated processing plant at Windom,... Read More
Exports are so important to the Canadian beef industry, and early 2020 was shaping up to be a record year for global demand. Then, COVID-19 happened. Statistics Canada recently released the January to March numbers for Canadian beef exports, and as Brenna Grant, manager of research services for CanFax, explains, there is evidence of COVID-19... Read More
It has been a real struggle for meat packers to hold or build slaughter capacity during the COVID-19 outbreak. Not too long ago analysts thought slaughter levels would not increase to 80% of capacity until mid summer but in both Canada and the U.S., the weekly slaughter is climbing back faster than first thought. The... Read More
While announcing the details of the new Coronavirus Food Assistance Program to assist livestock and grain producers, U.S. President Donald Trump dropped a shocker on the North American cattle industry. “I read yesterday where we take some cattle in from other countries, we have trade deals. I think you should look at terminating those deals,”... Read More
When winter kill makes it tough to grow alfalfa, what can dairy producers turn to for a protein source for milking cows? Believe it or not, forage soybeans may be a fit. That choice is gaining popularity with dairy farmers in eastern Ontario. "It's hard to beat good alfalfa from a protein-grown-on-the-farm standpoint, but the... Read More