Canada needs a different tact in international trade

Canada needs a different tact in international trade

Instead of defending supply management it needs to attack competitors’ subsidies

Supply management polarizes opinions: defend the status quo or dismantle the system. Unfortunately, this masks important strategic choices with implications for the dairy industry and, by extension, Canada’s agri-food sector as a whole. Canada’s internal debate keeps the country on a defensive footing. It is time to get offensive by focusing on other countries’ agricultural

Shipping manure by underground pipeline considered feasible

Shipping manure by underground pipeline considered feasible

New study considers manure transport alternative

With an increasing number of railway spills causing environmental and human health risks, underground pipelines are touted as a safer way of transporting oil, natural gas and chemicals. Now, it appears, you could add manure to the list. A new study suggests it might be possible in Manitoba to send 60 million gallons of liquid


smokestacks emitting CO2 emissions

Editorial: Canada’s GHG stance tarnishes our brand

Things aren’t going too well in the international trade agreement department. At the World Trade Organization (WTO) round, which has been dragging along since 1991, it’s come to the point where the director general is actually being honest about its prospects. “Taking an overview of all of these consultations it is hard to see a

Once animals have been loaded onto the level trailer surface, hydraulic lifts raise the animals into a locked position.

Livestock transport company testing new trailer design

Prototype will be tested for six to 12 months

One of North America’s largest commercial livestock carriers recently unveiled a new trailer that may revolutionize the future of livestock transportation. Steve’s livestock transport, which transports more than 2,500 head of cattle and 150,000 pigs throughout North America weekly, has partnered with Wilson Trailer Company of Sioux City, Iowa, to develop an all-aluminum hydraulic lift


bee on a flower

Surprisingly few ‘busy bees’ make global crops grow

Conservation of wild pollinators can’t be based on economics alone

A major international study published in Nature Communications, suggests that only two per cent of wild bee species pollinate 80 per cent of bee-pollinated crops worldwide. The study is one of the largest on bee pollination to date. While agricultural development and pesticides have been shown to produce sharp declines in many wild bee populations,

Rich Vesta

Editorial: Beef production and the view from Alberta

The view is different out here — and it’s not just the scenery. Granted, Co-operator staff had the rare opportunity last week to visit with ranchers in and around Calgary that were specifically selected by their colleagues at Alberta Farmer Express specifically because they do things a little differently. Nevertheless, it was an eye-opener listening


dairy cattle being milked

Milking it: Israel leads the way in dairy tech

China, India, other Asian countries, now look to Israeli expertise

Decades ago Israeli dairy farmers confronted a quandary — how could they provide milk to a fast-growing population in a country that is two-thirds desert, with little grazing land? They turned to technology, developing equipment that boosted output — from cooling systems to milk meters and biometrics — and have made Israeli cows the most

chickens in a barn

Mozart and mood lighting, a healthy prescription for chickens?

Combined with probiotics, it all adds up to a reduced need for drugs

In barns filled with classical music and lighting that changes to match the hues outside, rows of chickens are fed a diet rich in probiotics, a regimen designed to remove the need for the drugs and chemicals that have tainted the global food chain. As food giants face growing pressure to offer healthier produce, Southeast


potato crop

Manitoba potato acreage seen steady in 2015

Demand for processing potatoes is stable to up slightly in North America

It’s too early to make definitive statements about potato acreage in Manitoba in 2015, but Keystone Potato Producers Association manager Dan Sawatzky expects that if anything, it may go up slightly. “I think we’re pretty confident that we can say that,” he says. In 2014, Manitoba acreage totalled 63,340 acres, of which 45,000 were processing,

Landlocked Central Asia gets shorter railway link to Persian Gulf

The new route will enhance exports of natural gas, grain and textiles

Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Iran inaugurated a new railway route Dec. 3 that will improve resource-rich Central Asia’s access to markets in the Middle East and South Asia. The 925-km (578-mile) stretch of railway, built jointly by the three Caspian neighbours, will ease the exchange of goods between the landlocked post-Soviet region and the countries lying