Do Canadians want cage-free eggs? Survey says yes. But the data says they’re not voting with their wallets. In a survey of more than 1,000 Canadians, 72 per cent of respondents said Canada’s code of practice should ban caged confinement of laying hens. The survey, released this summer, comes from Bryant Research, a U.K. firm
Survey says Canadians want cage-free eggs but purchase choices don’t agree
The Canadian egg-farming sector is about halfway into a transition to enriched cage housing
Farm groups call for rollback of wheat standards decision
Groups say stringent standards will cost producers; elevators say it will make compensation more fair
Two Saskatchewan groups say a move by the Canadian Grain Commission to tighten test weight and total foreign material tolerances will cost farmers. They want it reversed. “Not only was this decision ill-considered and finalized hastily, but it was also done without proper consultation with producer groups and individual farmers who will bear the costs
Wireworm survival behaviour unearthed
Wireworms travelled deep into the soil for winter, research out of Atlantic Canada found
Wireworms can dig deep into the soil to avoid frost and survive cold temperatures, according to research out of Prince Edward Island. Christine Noronha, an entomologist with Agriculture Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Charlottetown, recently studied how deep, and at what times, wireworms were on the move in the soil. There are no in-season chemical options
The draw of rural vet practice
Faces of Ag: Nyssa Guilbert is the first Manitoban student to receive the Guy Hobman Award
With her love of rural life and penchant for the problem solving needed to treat many types and sizes of animals, Manitoba-born veterinary student Nyssa Guilbert says she hopes to work in a country practice once she graduates. “It’s just kind of like what I’ve always known and what I’ve always loved,” said the Anola-area
Province establishes strategic protein research chair
Priorities include funding research, developing opportunities for students, providing extension to industry and producer groups, says appointee
The province has pledged $1.5 million over six years to support protein research and extension work ahead of the third annual Manitoba Sustainable Protein Research Symposium. James House was named the Manitoba strategic research chair in sustainable protein, a position he says will include doling out the promised funds so that researchers can pursue protein-related
Flax, pulses could reduce health care costs: researcher
Canada’s health care costs keep rising, but better health could reduce that trend
Diets supplemented with flaxseed and pulses can reduce risk of certain diseases and thus curtail Canada’s health care spending. That was the message presented to attendees of the Manitoba Sustainable Protein Research Symposium in Winnipeg June 21. The speaker was Luc Clair, a health economist and principal investigator with the Canadian Centre for Agri-Food Research
Tough carbon markets to blame for payment delays: Farmers Edge
There was a lot of optimism around agricultural carbon credits, but returns were never a “slam dunk,” the company says
Farmers Edge says producers in its Smart Carbon offset program can’t get paid for their credits until those credits sell — and there aren’t a lot of willing buyers. “We have done a good job at serializing these offsets. Where we have not done a good job is selling them,” said Amit Pradhan, vice-president of
![“If we get to the point that we have to use regulations to enforce [it], it’s not working.” – Cam Dahl, Manitoba Pork Council.](https://static.manitobacooperator.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/22103423/hogs_cropped_cmyk-660x420.jpeg)
Pork sector has new playbook against PED
The Manitoba Pork Council’s new PED elimination plan relies on surveillance, biosecurity and aggressive action, but leaves room for farms to tailor responses
Manitoba Pork’s new plan to combat porcine epidemic diarrhea, or PED, relies on disease surveillance, ‘wartime’ biosecurity, heavy crackdowns on infected farms and producer co-operation to eliminate the virus from the province. “The long-term impacts of a major PED outbreak every other year is not sustainable,” the plan document says. The pork council posted the
Production to be minimally affected in HyLife layoffs
The Manitoba layoffs are mainly administrative staff, though the company also recently shuttered its Minnesota facility
La Broquerie-based pork company HyLife Foods says production will be minimally affected by layoffs it announced last week. “We are carefully restructuring to endure the current global conditions,” said president and CEO Grant Lazaruk in a June 9 news release, which announced the layoff of 87 employees, most of them administrative staff. The company has
Conservation easement payment ‘flawed’
A Saskatchewan stock growers’ group is seeking to reform easement structure, compensation
Landowners and ranchers don’t get enough for conservation easements to offset the opportunity cost, according to a study commissioned by a Saskatchewan producer group. Mindy Hockley, assistant program manager with the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Foundation, noted that farmers can calculate what they’ll get for breaking up land and converting it to grain crop use. Compared
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