Category: Livestock

Eight major livestock lobby groups in the United States and Canada have decided to pursue legal action against the United States Government for its implementation of the new mandatory country of origin (COOL) legislation. The legal action was released this morning and it pits the producers and packers against the US government in a very... Read More

Biosecurity is one of those terms that brings to mind people in hazmat suits and areas roped off with red tape and biohazard signs. The simple truth about the term biosecurity is that it consists of a lot of things that producers already do on the farm. Biosecurity is everything producers do to prevent the... Read More

Many Canadian cattle people have been urging CCA and the Canadian cattle industry to try and focus more on developing other markets than just the United States. With issues like mandatory COOL in place in the Unites States, other trade partners are needed so that the Canadian beef industry is not just a one trick... Read More

With the recent flooding that’s plagued Alberta, cattle producers understandably have other things on their mind besides new technology. But at some point, when the situation settles down, they’ll find themselves in a delicate position – that is, heading for the front lines of science, promoting irradiation for beef. Irradiation would help kill nasty E-coli... Read More

There are times when high quality high just isn't in the cards. In fact, sometimes the weather makes even attaining low quality hay nearly impossible. It's times like these that some farmers choose to turn too-wet hay into silage or haylage. The downside there, however, is that quality has already been lost — had you... Read More

Across parts of the Canada and the U.S., summer is making its presence felt. Intense heat has enveloped and put in danger areas of the U.S. while this week in Western Canada, some much needed heat is starting to dry out flood ravaged areas and give crops the boost they've been waiting for. Things can... Read More

It's tough being a small fish in a big pond. In this case, Canada's beef industry is that minnow in the giant ocean that is the U.S. beef industry. Or perhaps that's not fair — it would seem the big hiccup with the entire mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) fiasco is that, according to... Read More

To say it was a tough winter is perhaps an understatement. High feed costs, cold weather and the dollar at par or better weighed on the cattle market well into the spring. Add the misery of more stringent COOL requirements, and there have been some grumpy faces in the cattle market these days. Brian Perillat,... Read More

So, we now know the benefits of multi-species grazing, and how to choose a guardian dog for predation control, but how do we keep the little critters from escaping? At the Multi-Species Grazing Workshop hosted by Sexton Grazing and Consulting in Hanley, SK, we spoke to Jason Williams, Western Canada sales agent with Tru-Test. In... Read More

Purebred cattle operations rely largely on DNA for parentage verification and identifying potential genetic defects, but where is the rest of the industry at with genomics? Is there a role for genome mapping in commercial herds? How will it help the industry as a whole? "There's genomic tools for every sector of the value chain... Read More