David Wiens. (Photo: CNW Group/Dairy Farmers of Canada)

Manitoba dairyman named to lead national body

David Wiens elected president of Dairy Farmers of Canada

The vice-president of Dairy Farmers of Canada has levelled up to lead the organization following elections at its annual meeting Wednesday in Winnipeg. David Wiens, who farms with his brother at Grunthal, Man., about 50 km southeast of Winnipeg, replaces Pierre Lampron, an organic dairy farmer in Quebec’s Mauricie region and DFC president since 2017.

Cows on a Grunthal, Man. dairy farm. (Manitoba Co-operator photo by Geralyn Wichers)

Continuous tie-stall housing to be phased out in new dairy code of practice

Producer, animal welfare groups praise new code; some drawbacks were noted

New guidelines for dairy cattle care will improve animal welfare while also potentially increasing farm productivity, Dairy Farmers of Canada says. “I think that we’ve come to a very solid revised code,” David Wiens, DFC’s vice-president, said in an interview. The National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) on Thursday released its revised Code of Practice

(Noel Hendrickson/DigitalVision/Getty Images)

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.


(Diane Kuhl/iStock/Getty Images)

Dairy farmers seek mid-year increase on farmgate milk prices

CDC to seek stakeholder comment next week

The Canadian Dairy Commission will seek out feedback from industry stakeholders next week on Canadian dairy farmers’ request for a mid-year raise in farmgate milk prices. The CDC said June 2 it had received a request from Dairy Farmers of Canada for the increase “due to the current inflationary environment.” If it’s approved, and if

(Artisteer/iStock/Getty Images)

British milk sours amid labour crisis

London | Reuters — Some British dairy farmers have been forced to destroy tens of thousands of litres of milk due to rising costs, labour shortages and an acute deficit of truck drivers which has strained supply chains to breaking point, farmers said. A post-Brexit shortage of workers, exacerbated by the global strains of the

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


File photo of Agropur’s fluid milk plant in Winnipeg. (Dave Bedard photo)

Agropur to shut Winnipeg fluid milk plant

Work to be consolidated in B.C., Alberta

Dairy co-operative Agropur will consolidate its fluid milk production for Western Canada further west this fall, as it moves to shut its operation in Winnipeg. The Quebec-based co-operative announced Tuesday it will close its Winnipeg fluid milk plant effective Sept. 24 — affecting 48 jobs — and transfer that work to plants at Edmonton, Victoria

(Stanzi11/iStock/Getty Images)

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