Maple Leaf Foods now expects to complete its shift to open sow housing with years to spare. The company is more than halfway completed its transition, according to Dr. Greg Douglas, vice-president of animal care. About 40,000 of the company’s 70,000 sows are currently managed under the advanced open-housing system, and the company expects to
Maple Leaf pulls ahead on open sow housing
Gestation crates will be a thing of the past at Maple Leaf Foods as of 2021, three years ahead of the National Farm Animal Care Council’s deadline
Wet weather fuels propane demand for grain dryers
Co-op says propane deliveries have hit record highs in Saskatchewan and are elevated elsewhere, although there have not yet been widespread service issues in Manitoba
Propane demand has skyrocketed across the Prairies as more farmers look to their grain dryers, but Manitoba has so far avoided the service crunch. Demand for drying capacity has seen a sharp rise given the region’s early taste of winter. In the western Prairies, photos of producers checking standing crops via snowmobile have streamed over
Kochia and salinity: a battle on two fronts
One strategy might be to treat saline patches like a lawn, and mow them before the kochia sets seed
Producers may be looking for a way to beat back kochia, but what does that mean for the salinity problems lurking in the soil? Saline patches were common this year after a second season of below-average moisture. Read more: The year of the tumbleweed “The fluctuations in soil moisture are very linked to the soil
No wool over their eyes
Grazing preference, fencing, and parasite issues are among the quirks sheep producers deal with when attempting high stock density grazing
Markus Wand can draw on a long family history of high intensity rotational grazing and adapting it to different species. His operation, Wand Family Farm near Powassan, Ont., has been rotationally grazing since the ’70s when Markus’s father, Klaus, bought a dairy farm and turned to the practice to help manage the farm’s purebred herd.
Livestock opinions diverge on USMCA
Supply-managed sectors are calling foul on NAFTA’s successor, but livestock industries like pork and beef are welcoming the deal with open arms
Livestock sectors are split on yet another free trade agreement, this one the successor to NAFTA. Canada’s dairy sector has made no secret that it is unhappy with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which promises new access for the U.S. dairy industry, an end to Class 6 and Class 7 milk products within six months
Used grain dryers face battle for certification
Anyone hoping a used grain dryer will save their moisture-laden crop may be in for a fight to get it certified
Farmers in the market for a used grain dryer say they are frustrated by a quagmire of red tape during a year when crops are already buried under snow and wetted by weeks of rain. It’s a potentially hard hit for Andrew Dalgarno of Newdale, who said only about 15 per cent of his crop
Meeting the mark for sustainable beef
CRSB supporters hope its newly unveiled logos, trademarks and certification marks may help draw in the consumer once they start appearing on product labels and advertisements
The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) hopes consumers will soon be on the lookout for its new logos. The organization launched its trademarks and logos, along with rules on how to use them, to the market Sept. 20. The logos and trademarks may soon be appearing on company advertisements, promotional materials or specific products
Remaining canola promises tough harvest
September’s sudden snowfall should be treated like a frost if crops were immature and a rain event if pods were ready to come off the field, according to the Canola Council of Canada
Canola growers are casting more than one mournful look to the field after an unseasonable snow dump and chilly rain stopped harvest in its tracks. Manitoba’s weather took a turn to the cold and wet in the last weeks of September, with many regions reporting rain, temperatures well below 10 C and, in a stark
To the bin or bust: quinoa a risky proposition
Producers find new challenges with the South American transplant
Five years after planting his first quinoa crop, Ryan Pengelly of Tamarack Farms near Erickson has tasted success and failure. He’s placed his direct-marketed product on retail shelves and in farmers’ market stalls. He’s also experienced total crop failures other years. Pengelly, like other producers pioneering quinoa in Manitoba, is looking for agronomic answers in
Is palmer amaranth waiting in the wings?
Experts weigh in on palmer amaranth, its climbing stats to the south, and the chance we might see the weed cropping up in Manitoba
Provincial weed specialist Tammy Jones says it’s not time to push the panic button on palmer amaranth, despite new cases reported in North Dakota. Manitoba has cast a closer eye to the situation now that the noxious weed has been spotted in the neighbouring state. “We knew it was in South Dakota, so the expectation