Archive for February, 2010
Edible Pea Market Slumps
Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Edible pea farmers saw the market slump a bit in the past two weeks. According to reports, cash prices in the prairies have fallen as much as 30 to 50 cents a bushel as demand for edible peas has fallen.
Current bids for peas are in the range of $5 to $7 [...]
Improve Your Forage Pasture
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
If you’d like to improve upon, or add to the existing forage species in your pasture, this is the time to start thinking about your methods. February and early March are the perfect months in which to start frost seeding. Later on, in the spring, interseeding is an equally viable option [...]
Optimize Your Dairy Feeding Program
Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
In order to improve yields and overall herd health, optimizing your dairy feeding program has to be an essential part of your management plan.
Dairy cattle have very specific requirements when it comes to their nutritional needs and performance, so any changes that are made to their feed programs can have a significant [...]
Protect Yourself from Theft and Vandalism
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
For farmers, living on sprawling properties, usually in isolated areas, safety can be a special consideration. Not only do things like expensive farm equipment and livestock – even crops – make an attractive target for thieves, other incidences, like vandalism, are not easily deterred due to difficulty in monitoring the entire property. To make [...]
Sofina Foods Buys Lilydale
Image: Michelle Meiklejohn
Producer-controlled poultry processing plant, Lilydale Inc., has been sold to privately-owned firm, Sofina Foods, based in Markham, Ontario, for about $130 million. Sofina will pay nearly $75 million in cash and debentures, and will assume Lilydale’s $55 million debt. The company has also promised that it will spend $20 million over the next [...]
New Midge-Resistant Wheat Varieties Available
Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Canadian wheat growers will have access to new midge-resistant seed varieties this year – giving them a better chance of growing healthy wheat without loss of quality or yield.
The two new red spring wheat varieties contain a resistance trait that helps them fight off the wheat midge bug. In addition to [...]
Investment for Canada’s Dairy Farmers
Photo Credit: Danilo Rizzuti
The government of Canada has announced that it is supporting innovation in dairy farming to help make Canadian dairy farmers more productive, while producing more nutritious products, safely. In the announcement made by Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, it was revealed that $10 million will be provided by the federal government to support [...]
Country of Origin Labeling Issue Remains Hot
Image: m_bartosch / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The country-of-origin labeling debate is heating up, with the U.S.’s Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) claiming that Canada has an unfair advantage in the cattle and beef sectors due to its government subsidies program, and that, in fact, Canada is in violation of the World Trade Organization agreement.
Together with the United Stockgrowers [...]
Clubroot Disease on the Rise in Alberta
Image: Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Clubroot is a highly infectious plant fungus that is a significant threat to canola, and also affects the cabbage family, including cole crop vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, rutabaga and mustard. It requires a living host in order to grow, and once it begins to thrive the pathogen can cause [...]
Encapsulated Enzyme May Replace Antibiotics in Feed
Image: m_bartosch / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
By using encapsulated lysozyme, a Vancouver-based organization hopes to successfully replace antibiotics in chicken feed.
EnWave Corporation, in collaboration with Neova Technologies, from Abbotsford, British Columbia – a division of Bioseutica – have successfully completed their poultry feeding trials to determine the effectiveness of their product.
Using a process patented by EnWave – [...]
