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Mid-year farm gate price hike approved for milk

Processors say incremental hike may soften impact on consumers

A request from Canada’s dairy farmer organization for an unscheduled increase in the current farm gate price for milk, to help farmers catch up with steep rises in their costs of production, has been granted. The Canadian Dairy Commission said Tuesday it will recommend that the farm gate price for milk be increased effective Sept.

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Study finds no data to show change in butter consistency

Not enough data to link to palm supplement use, either

Updated, Jan. 24 — A panel tasked with reviewing complaints of changes in Canadian butter’s consistency has found there’s not enough data out there to support those complaints — nor to support the allegation that palm byproducts in cows’ rations were the cause. The Expert Working Group on Feed Supplementation, set up by Dairy Farmers


dairy cows feeding

The lessons of ‘Buttergate’

A Canadian had a front-row seat for both Buttergate and New Zealand controversies Social media conversations about food can go from benign to trending in a matter of hours or days. That became painfully obvious to Canadian dairy farmers during the so-called “Buttergate” controversy earlier this year. The same thing happened five years ago to

Most of what cows in Canada eat is grown on their home farm or locally.

Comment: ‘Buttergate’ debunked: No hard evidence on palm supplements for cows

Consider the difference in value between replying to a social media post and conducting a formal survey of a representative sample of people

The recent controversies over the properties of butter and how dairy cows are fed have become a case study in media attention and the weight of evidence behind it. Anecdotal comments about the consistency of butter snowballed into sometimes overheated discussion of dairy cows’ diets. To paraphrase the Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift, sensationalism flies and

There may be a reason why your butter is harder at room temperature.

Comment: ‘Hard’ truths about butter

Palm oil in feed is thought to be the culprit and consumers will be disappointed

For months now, thousands of Canadians have taken to social media saying that they have noticed that butter sold in Canada is harder and does not get softer at room temperature. Not all butter is harder, but most of it is. Some people blame winter and the colder weather. The truth is more troubling than


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Dairy farmers asked to pass on palm byproducts in rations, for now

Seek out other ingredients while hard-butter issue under review, DFC asks

Canadian dairy farmers whose feed rations include supplements made with palm byproducts are being asked to consider other options while consumer complaints over butter are probed more closely. Dairy Farmers of Canada on Thursday asked its farmer members to “consider alternatives to palm supplements” pending the outcome of a review of “issues that have been

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Pandemic spurs farm gate milk price hike

Dairy Commission to lift price effective Feb. 1 next year

With the COVID-19 pandemic in mind, the Canadian Dairy Commission has set aside its usual milk price adjustment formula and will instead increase the price based on its own review. The CDC on Monday announced the farm gate price of milk will increase by $1.46 per hectolitre (100 litres) effective Feb. 1, 2021, pending approval

Espousing the benefits of hand separators

Espousing the benefits of hand separators

Our History: April 1898

The April issue of The Nor’-West Farmer and Miller carried this photo of the Macdonald Creamery at Portage la Prairie, along with an article on the benefits of hand separators. “The first and most pronounced way in which separators save money is by taking more butter fat out of the milk. It is estimated by


Close up of milking cluster

Supply management protects few, could harm more

Why are broad trade agreements that benefit almost all Canadians being jeopardized to protect a small subset of farmers, estimated at just 13,500 across Canada? The United States has repeatedly indicated that a key tension in North American Free Trade (NAFTA) renegotiations is Canada’s protection of dairy, poultry and egg producers. These protectionist policies were