1974 advertisement for a phone answering machine

A “black year” for Canadian grain shipments

Our History: November 1974

You could lease this automatic telephone answering machine advertised for $28.30 per month ($131.47 in 2014 dollars) in our Nov. 28, 1974 issue. The editorial that week talked about a “black year” for Canadian grain shipments. Our front page reported yet another strike, this time by grain inspectors. This followed strikes by Great Lakes vessel

one dollar banknote among wheat grains

Editorial: The cure for high grain prices is…

When you get right down to it, covering grain markets is kind of like sports reporting. Depending on your perspective, the outcome at the end of the day is either win, lose or tie. There’s only so many ways to describe that, just as there are only so many ways to describe why the market


cow eating hay

Editorial: Foraging for a national voice

Just four years since its inception, the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association is struggling after losing the support of the sector that arguably benefits the most from its activities. Eighty per cent of Canada’s beef production depends on forages as the main feed source. Of the $5.1 billion of economic activity forages contribute to the

meat aisle in grocery store

U.S. appeals latest WTO ruling on COOL

Retaliatory tariffs are now delayed

Canada will have to wait up to three more months before it can impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods over Washington’s mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) law on meat from imported livestock. The U.S. government filed a notice of appeal Nov. 28 against the latest ruling by a World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance panel, which last


man speaking at a conference

China still an important factor

Exports remain key to Canada’s commodity sector as prices fall back to earth

Profits on grains and oilseeds might be down, but it’s no reason to panic. Speaking at Farm Management Canada’s Agriculture Excellence conference in Winnipeg, Farm Credit Canada’s chief economist said the high prices of recent years were never destined to become the new normal. “The sky is not falling, it’s not falling at all,” J.P.

group of pigs

PED not sole factor in hog price increase

Even without PED hog prices would have been strong last year

No one wants to rejoice in their neighbours’ suffering — or at least no one admits to it — but the ongoing PED outbreak south of the border has undoubtably aided Canadian hog producers. Speaking at a Farm Management Canada’s Agriculture Excellence conference in Winnipeg, J.P. Gervais said that the continued presence of the porcine


de-feathered chickens on a food-processing line

Chicken industry reaches long-delayed allocation agreement

The provinces had to either find consensus or risk losing supply management

Canada’s broiler chicken industry has reached a new quota allocation agreement, avoiding a potential showdown with a federal regulator that could have thrown the system into chaos. The Farm Products Council of Canada had threatened not to approve Chicken Farmers of Canada’s allocation requests unless it came up with an agreement reflecting provinces’ comparative advantages

Weather pattern becoming more active

Issued: Monday, Nov. 24, 2014 – Covering: Nov. 26 – Dec. 3, 2014

Last week’s forecast didn’t turn out exactly as the weather models predicted. A large storm system moving across the central Prairies last weekend washed out as it moved into Manitoba, and was replaced by a second system that was forecast to move by us to our south. This system became much stronger than forecast and,


"Canada is in a great position compared to the United States when it comes to this outbreak." – Tim Snider

Canadian case of PED virus provided link for researchers

Biosecurity measures are still key, but preventing the contamination of feed 
will help slow the spread of PED

The porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus has hit producers hardest south of the border, but it was the first Canadian case that helped researchers find the source of the disease. Speaking to pork producers in Niverville, Tim Snider of the University of Minnesota said that the emergence of the disease in Canada provided the biggest

Two people in one week were arrested for packing heat at a Washington congressional building.

Livestock industry lobbying, American style

Pork council spokesman says incoming 
president might have been talking turkey

The incoming president of the National Pork Producers Council in the U.S. was arrested July 23 when officers at a congressional office building found a loaded 9-mm Ruger handgun in his bag, the Washington Post reports. Ronald William Prestage, 59, who lives in Camden, S.C., was charged with carrying a handgun outside a home or