After closing for 14 days due to a COVID-19 outbreak among employees, Olymel is resuming operations at its pork processing plant in Red Deer, Alberta starting on Thursday, March 4. With support from Alberta Health Services, the company says slaughter operations will resume on Thursday, with cutting room operations beginning on Friday. The company says... Read More
Category: Livestock
The University of Saskatchewan (USask) has been awarded $6.76 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to help conserve bison and other threatened animal species. The announcement follows Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's announcement of more than $518 million to support the infrastructure needs of universities and research institutions across the country. The wide-ranging research... Read More
Alison Sunstrum was pushing for interconnectivity of farm data long before the internet was even commonplace. It's that kind of foresight that has pushed Sunstrum to grow not only her own businesses, but also to act as mentor — and sometimes funder and partner — to several other upstarts and innovators in agriculture. In this... Read More
The post-COVID situation for the food industry may be a concern for the average consumer. The impacts might be most felt by the grocery and restaurant sectors and one has to wonder what the business might look like when we emerge from the pandemic. "It depends which country you're in," says Dr. David Hughes, emeritus... Read More
Statistics Canada says that the cow herd and ewe flock have declined as of January 1, 2021, year-over-year, while hog numbers are up slightly. As of the first of the year, StatsCan says the hog herd increased by less than one per cent — just 0.4% year-over-year — while cattle numbers dropped one per cent... Read More
A national coalition of industry-wide farm organizations have launched the Agriculture Carbon Alliance (ACA). The goal of the alliance is to ensure that "Canadian farmers’ sustainable practices are recognized through a policy environment that maintains their competitiveness, supports their livelihoods, and leverages their critical role as stewards of the land," the organization says. As of... Read More
Diversifying can mean making a small tweak to an operation, or in today's guest's case, building really big — like 40,000 head of cattle big. Joining us for today's RealAg LIVE! is Kevin Serfas, of Serfas Farms near Turin, Alta,. who just completed a brand new, large-scale feedlot with new cattle in it (today)! RealAg... Read More
In a story that only seems to get more contentious and downright odd the longer it goes on, Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) is now asking dairy farmers to consider eliminating the use of palm oil by-product supplements in dairy rations, until new research is completed. Earlier this month, RealAgriculture explored reports by some Canadians... Read More
A Conservative MP's private member's bill that aims to exempt propane and natural gas used on farms from the federal carbon tax was approved at second reading in the House of Commons on Wednesday night. MPs from the Conservative, New Democrat, Bloc and Green parties voted in favour of Ontario MP Philip Lawrence's Bill C-206,... Read More
An enterprising farmer is one that, in finding a gap in available equipment, decides simply to build their own. Such is the case with Korb Whale of Clovermead Farms and the biodigester setup on his farm. When the farm decided to pursue building a digester, there really wasn't a turn-key option in Canada. Instead, Whale... Read More