File photo of an Alberta wheat field. (ImagineGolf/E+/Getty Images)

Coalition seeks farmers, ranchers to join climate change forum

Farmers for Climate Solutions aims to gather diverse viewpoints

A farmer-led group is hoping to cut through the politics surrounding climate issues by bringing together a diverse group of Prairie farmers and ranchers for discussions around sustainability. “There’s a number of loud voices that tend to dominate the conversations,” says Ian McCreary, a grain and cattle farmer from Bladworth, Sask. McCreary is co-leading the

Smoke rises from a wildfire over a hill at Kamloops, B.C. on July 1, 2021, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. (Nicole Ritter via Reuters)

B.C. presses for ranchers to register before wildfires hit

Premises ID helps protect livestock in emergencies, province says

British Columbia’s provincial ag ministry hopes to shore up ranchers’ participation in the Premises Identification program against the risk of further wildfires this year. About two-thirds, or 5,200, of B.C.’s non-supply managed livestock producers, and all the supply-managed dairy cattle and poultry premises in the province, are registered in the program, the province said Wednesday.


Workers use knives to butcher cattle carcasses at a new Hertzog Meat Co. beef plant at Butler, Missouri on June 14.

Stung by pandemic and JBS cyberattack, U.S. ranchers build new beef plants

CATTLE | A number of new operators are entering the fray, albeit at relatively small volumes

U.S. cattle ranchers and investors are sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into new beef plants after temporary closures of massive slaughterhouses at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic left farmers with nowhere to send animals. A cyberattack against the U.S. unit of Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS SA that idled nearly a quarter of America’s




Assembly of a 2014 Chevy Traverse at General Motors’ Lansing Delta Township assembly plant in Michigan. (John F. Martin photo for Chevrolet)

NAFTA nations ‘nowhere near’ a deal, USTR says

Washington/New York | Reuters — The top U.S. trade official on Thursday poured cold water on the prospect of an imminent breakthrough in talks to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) hours after Canada’s prime minister struck a positive note. “The NAFTA countries are nowhere near close to a deal,” U.S. Trade Representative


As of this month, all front-line RCMP officers in rural Manitoba have been equipped with naloxone kits to assist people who have come into contact with opioids. (Photo courtesy Manitoba RCMP)

Farmers seen harder hit by opioid crisis than rest of rural U.S.

Chicago | Reuters — The opioid crisis in the United States is impacting farm and ranch families more acutely than their rural neighbours, according to a survey published by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and the U.S. National Farmers Union on Thursday. About three-quarters of farmers and ranchers surveyed said a family member, someone

James Hargrave (second from right) in September 2016 with provincial Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier, Medicine Hat MLA Bob Wanner and Environment Minister Shannon Phillips. (AlbertaGrazingLease.ca)

Communities rally around producers in wildfires’ wake

Ranchers, farmers and rural residents who suffered losses, injuries and more in recent wildfires in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan are seeing support from neighbours and beyond. Alongside a number of online campaigns launched in support of affected farmers and families, the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association on Monday launched a wildfire relief fund to help


(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Major Alberta cattle feeder set to shut feedlots

Reuters — One of Canada’s biggest cattle feeding operations, Western Feedlots, said Wednesday it will close feeding operations after marketing the cattle it currently owns, due to poor market conditions. Closure of Western’s feeding operations, likely early in 2017 once its current cattle are sold, will make it more difficult for ranchers to find markets