Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau addresses the 2019 Dairy Farmers of Canada AGM in Saskatoon in July. (Photo courtesy AAFC)

Future payouts from dairy fund still up for discussion

What happens to the rest of Canada’s eight-year, $1.75 billion funding envelope to compensate its dairy farmers for other countries’ gains in market access is still up for discussion, according to the federal ag minister. In a statement Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Ottawa gets that Canadian dairy farmers want more direct payments beyond […] Read more

The U.S. meat and livestock industry has a comprehensive price reporting system that is the envy of the world.

Kay: Price reporting invaluable to livestock and meat industries

Prime Cuts with Steve Kay

Good market information, particularly regarding prices, is the lifeblood of the livestock and meat industry, in which millions of dollars change hands every day of the week. “Good” information, however, must be accurate and unbiased, as comprehensive as possible, timely and easily accessible, and understood by all market participants. Today’s cattle producers throughout Canada can […] Read more


The funding will aid in a number of VBP+ activities.

Verified Beef Production Plus receives funding to support program advancement

VBP+: News Roundup from the August 2019 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

The Canadian Agriculture Partnership Agri-Assurance program has allocated $602,250 to the Verified Beef Production Plus (VBP+) program. The funding will support several VBP+ activities, including: Modifying the training platform to meet educational demands by producers. Increasing the database capacity and functionality by automating processes where practical and ensuring growing demand is met while adding value […] Read more



In the near term, calf prices on light volumes should remain steady.

McMillin: Domestic, global beef demand strong

The Markets with Deb McMillin, from the August 2019 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Fed cattle It’s uncommon to see fed cattle prices pick up through the month of July. However, this has been the case in the last two weeks in Alberta. Beef demand both domestically and globally has been strong and sellers continue to be current in their front-end supply, which has created some leverage. The mid-July […] Read more




As you may have already noticed, foragebeef.ca has now become beefresearch.ca.

Bergen: ForageBeef.ca gets a facelift

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

Canada’s National Beef Strategy has four goals that our industry aims to achieve by 2020. For the past year this column has explained how research is contributing to a 15 per cent increase in carcass cut-out value (the beef demand pillar), a 15 per cent improvement in production efficiency (productivity), and a seven per cent […] Read more



A plunging futures market in mid-May caused hedged cattle feeders to sell cattle early at lower prices for three weeks in a row.

Kay: Cattle futures crush the present

Prime Cuts with Steve Kay

Futures markets perform an important role in agricultural markets by allowing producers of key commodities to construct risk management strategies to help them make money. The futures are also anticipatory markets, and these two roles sometimes make for strange bedfellows. Right now in the U.S., the futures market for feeder and live cattle are crushing […] Read more