News Roundup

FEEDLOTS NAMAKA FARMS APPROVED FOR SASKATCHEWAN FEEDLOT After some controversy, Namaka Farms of Strathmore, Alta. received the go-ahead to build a new feedlot on land it owns near Outlook, Sask., when the council for the RM of Rudy approved a discretionary development permit for a 24,000 animal-unit intensive livestock operation at a special meeting on […] Read more

TRADE COOL IMPACTS Market analyst Kevin Grier doesn’t buy the U. S. argument that its mandatory country-of-origin labelling legislation (COOL) has not affected Canadian livestock markets, and he has some interesting numbers to back up the argument. In the October 15 issue of theCanadian Cattle Buyerpublished by the Guelph-based George Morris Centre, Grier points to […] Read more

POLICY ALBERTA TO REINTRODUCE MANDATORY NATIONAL CHECKOFF After a summer of intense negotiations the Alberta Beef Producers (ABP) and Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association (ACFA) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on Sept. 3 to implement a $1 per head non-refundable levy for national market development, research and promotion programs. The deal was encouraged and helped […] Read more

TRAINING GUIDELINES FOR CATTLE PROCESSING AVAILABLE Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health has been working hard this summer to put together an educational training resource for Canadian cattle producers and feedlot personnel who process and treat cattle. The comprehensive video/booklet package, titled “Cattle Processing — Guidelines for Success” will be offered at a number of producer meetings and […] Read more

REGULATION MORE RED TAPE FOR EXPORTERS/IMPORTERS On September 1, importers and exporters of cattle, bison and sheep will be required to provide their Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) or Agri-Traabilité Québec (ATQ) database account number on animal health export certificates and import permits. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency in a press release says the account […] Read more

TRADE COLOMBIAN PORTS REOPENED TO CANADIAN CATTLE The first South American country to take Canadian beef since 2003 will now accept Canadian cattle born after Aug. 1, 2007. The Canadian government confirmed last month that Colombia had reopened its ports to imports of Canadian cattle. It is the first South American country to accept Canadian […] Read more

POLICY WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE The 2010 Alberta Beef Industry Conference opened this year with a new event that asked some well-known members of the industry how they saw the road ahead for the Canadian beef business. Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association chairman Doug Price believes the greatest obstacles at the moment are the industry’s […] Read more

continued from previous story 90 per cent of the cattle marketed in the province, voted to support mandatory age verification in Saskatchwan at their semi-annual meeting last May. But they weren’t ready to fully endorse the tracking component of traceability at their January annual meeting in Saskatoon. “We know it’s coming, but we feel it […] Read more

ENVIRONMENT ALBERTA TESTS ALUS CONCEPT Alberta’s first ALUS (alternative land use services) pilot project was offi-cially launched Jan. 20 at Lloydminster in partnership with the County of Vermilion River (CVR). The initial proposal from CVR and the Delta Waterfowl Foundation (DWF) back in 2007 was to pay local landowners to create and preserve wetlands to […] Read more

to review the situation, which turned out to be based on little more than a couple of emails from state officials to feedlots seeking reconciliation of a handful of transposition errors. The few human errors that had been identified were all corrected long before the R-CALF affiliate launched its missile. As the Canada — U. […] Read more