Quebec meat packing firm Olymel is set to double the production space at the La Fernandiere sausage plant it bought last year at Trois-Rivieres. The company, an arm of major agrifood co-operative La Coop federee, announced plans to spend $8.1 million to double the plant’s area to over 45,000 square feet, setting up more space […] Read more
Olymel to expand Quebec sausage plant
B.C. NDP’s ag critic named ag minister
The agriculture critic for British Columbia’s opposition New Democrats will be the minister of agriculture as the party takes the governing reins. Lana Popham, the MLA for the Vancouver Island riding of Saanich South, was named Tuesday as ag minister in Premier John Horgan’s cabinet. Horgan took over as premier after Christy Clark’s Liberals, who […] Read more
Ministers agree on new ag funding framework
Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial ministers for agriculture have agreed on the bones of a new five-year policy funding framework, committing them to a review of its business risk management (BRM) programming. The ministers came out of three days of meetings Friday in St. John’s with the “key elements” of a five-year, $3 billion framework, […] Read more
Nilsson Bros. to buy back JBS feedlot for $50 million
Scandal-plagued Brazilian meat packing giant JBS’s plans to sell off non-core assets will see its major cattle feedlot in southern Alberta sold back to its previous owner. JBS USA announced Friday its JBS Food Canada arm has reached a deal to sell Lakeside Feeders, its cattle feedlot and “adjacent farmland” at Brooks, Alta. for $50 […] Read more
BCCA connecting ranchers, haulers in wildfire areas
Livestock producers needing to move animals out of wildfire zones in British Columbia’s Interior are being asked to contact the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association. The BCCA, on its website, said it’s helping to co-ordinate haulers with producers who need to evacuate livestock. “With closures of highways and evacuation orders, permits are needed to re-enter evacuated areas […] Read more
Olymel plans sausage production at Red Deer
New equipment and refrigerated storage are going into Olymel’s Alberta pork processing plant at Red Deer as the facility gets into the sausage business. Pork and poultry processor Olymel, owned mainly by Quebec agribusiness co-operative La Coop federee, announced Monday it will put up $2 million to convert a section of the Red Deer plant […] Read more
Saskatchewan sets new cougar, bear trapping seasons
Saskatchewan has set up a new cougar season for trappers, plus a southern expansion of its black bear trapping season, in part to help limit livestock predation. The province on Wednesday announced a new “trapping-only” cougar season will open Oct. 15, 2017 and close March 15, 2018. It also announced a new “black bear opportunity” […] Read more
Toronto juice firm backed for ‘cold pasteurization’
A Toronto organic juice processor that bills itself as shunning conventional pasteurization for its products has picked up federal funding to develop a “new-to-Canada” way to extend their shelf life. The federal government on Friday announced a “repayable investment” of up to $6.3 million from the AgriInnovation program for Greenhouse Juice Co. to set up […] Read more
Ontario processor fined for faux-kosher cheese
An Ontario food processing company has been slapped with $25,000 in fines for labelling non-kosher cheese as kosher, in the first Canadian case of its kind to get to a provincial court. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Wednesday reported Creation Foods Co. of Woodbridge had pled guilty June 22 in the Ontario Court of […] Read more
Biochar could be a game changer
Environment: News Roundup from the June 2017 issue of Canadian Cattlemen
A multi-pronged research project based in Alberta aims to assess whether feeding biochar in backgrounding and finishing rations could be a way to reduce methane emissions created during enteric fermentation in the ruminant digestive system. Biochar can be manufactured from any type of feedstock with a fibre component — wood waste from saw mills, coconut […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
