Close to 90 per cent of wheat acres on Canada’s Prairies are seeded to spring wheat or durum with intent to go into bread or pasta, the Canadian Wheat Board says. According to the board’s 2008 variety survey, despite the recent attention given to food crops flowing into ethanol production, the proportion of wheats grown […] Read more
Food wins food-vs.-fuel debate on Prairies: CWB
Listeria found again at Maple Leaf plant
Just a few weeks after deep-cleaning and reopening to a far heavier testing regime, Maple Leaf Foods’ Bartor Road meat processing plant in Toronto has yielded a few product samples contaminated with listeria. Listeria monocytogenes was detected in four positive test results out of over 2,700 product samples reported to date since the plant’s restart, […] Read more
CWB opens CWRS fusarium program
Prairie wheat growers with fusarium-infected No. 2, 3 or 4 Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat on their hands can now sign up for the Canadian Wheat Board’s 2008-09 fusarium program. A separate CWB fusarium program was put in place last month for No. 2 Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW), for which sign-up began Sept. […] Read more
N.S. wind atlas goes online
Nova Scotia property owners considering wind turbines for their land can use a new online wind atlas to rate their site’s potential. Researchers from Universite de Moncton and the applied geomatics research group at Nova Scotia Community College developed the wind data last year. Since then, staff in the research group have worked to overlay […] Read more
Calculator to gauge horses’ disease risks
The University of Guelph’s horse health centre plans to launch an online calculator program with which horse owners can pencil out the impact of their farm practices on their animals’ risk of infectious disease. Equine Guelph, in a notice on its website, said it plans to unveil what it calls the equine biosecurity risk calculator […] Read more
N.L. to fund cranberry acreage development
Aiming to defray some of the high start-up costs of cranberry production, Newfoundland and Labrador’s government is taking applications for funding under a new cranberry industry development program. The program, announced in the province’s 2008 budget, is funded up to $2.95 million for 2008-09, the government said in a release Wednesday. The cranberry program is […] Read more
COOL confusion costs producers: CCA, CPC
Watching its rules be reinterpreted on “a weekly basis,” Canada’s cattle and hog producers say U.S. country-of-origin labelling (COOL) legislation is now chilling cross-border trade volume and prices. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and Canadian Pork Council have filed joint comments with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) saying COOL is discriminating against Canada’s 100,000 livestock […] Read more
Alta. ships PID forms for AFRP II funding
Alberta livestock producers will either soon have or be able to order the forms needed for their second round of benefits under the Alberta Farm Recovery Plan (AFRP) II. The province, in an information bulletin Tuesday, reiterated that to receive their second installment of AFRP II funding in early 2009, cattle producers must age-verify their […] Read more
Sask. boosts water funding for dry southwest
The Saskatchewan government will use AgriRecovery funds to boost funding for ranchers and farmers in the parched southwest to build infrastructure to supply water. Provincial Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud announced Tuesday in Swift Current that producers in 65 drought-designated rural municipalities can get boosts in aid available through the Farm and Ranch Water Infrastructure Program […] Read more
U.S. FDA approval eyed for canola proteins
A Canadian food research and development firm says it’s confirmed that its two canola protein isolates will meet U.S. safety standards as food ingredients — and will now see if U.S. regulators agree. Burcon NutraScience, based in Vancouver with lab and technical facilities in Winnipeg, announced Tuesday that it has “self-affirmed” that its products, Puratein […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
