Major pork processor to ditch gestation stalls

Quebec-based Olymel becomes the latest major processor to bow to consumer pressure to change how it houses pregnant sows

Another major Canadian pork processor has announced it will ban the use of gestations stalls in the coming years. The Quebec-based Olymel says it will phase out gestation stalls over the next decade. “We’ve been thinking about this for a long time, we’ve been talking to our partners and reading expert opinion,” said Olymel spokesman

BIXS carcass data available

Some ranchers are getting a taste of what national traceability 
system has to offer in terms of finished beef

If you shipped age-verified calves that were slaughtered at one of the major plants in Canada after May 2010, there may be some interesting information waiting for you online. “There’s two million records in the system, so there’s a good chance you’ll have some in there,” said Marlin Beever, a rancher from Rivers who has


High standards, or regulatory burden?

If you are one of those grain farmers who takes great pride in being a free enterpriser, the next sentence may upset you. You are a member of a collective. Perhaps you don’t have a certificate certifying your involvement in such a pinko outfit, but unless you sell all your grain to one customer who









Cargill to idle its Plainview, Texas, beef plant

chicago / reuters / U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. said Jan. 17 it will idle its Plainview, Texas, beef-processing plant on Feb. 1 due to tight U.S. cattle supplies brought on by years of drought in the Southern Plains states. “The U.S. cattle herd is at its lowest level since 1952. Increased feed costs resulting