Business Tools

This article was first published in Volume 4 Issue 3 of ABP Magazine (September 2024). Watch for more digital content from the magazine on ABP Daily. Alberta beef producers have the Verified Beef Production Plus (VBP+) program to help them ‘prepare for the storms.’ Whether it’s localized ‘squalls’ like scours that can devastate an individual producers, or large ‘winter…

An RFID tag applicator, sometimes referred to as a “tagger” or as “pliers,” is the one vital tool every producer needs to make tagging cattle possible for our national traceability program. There are a lot of different applicators to choose from, and while they’re not all the same, they’re definitely not interchangeable with the different…

In the wake of 2023’s unprecedented wildfires, Alberta’s government is investing in improved wildfire preparedness. Central to this investment is the allocation of funds for two additional airtanker groups and two new helicopters equipped with night-vision technology. “I am encouraged by the increased interest in both the FireSmart and Fireguard Programs this year,” says Todd…

There is alignment between farmland rental rates and the appreciating value of farmland across Canada according to a new analysis from Farm Credit Canada (FCC). The farmland rental rate analysis presents the rent-to-price ratio for cultivated farmland in Canada. The ratio uses insights from data sets on cash rental rates and the Farmland Values Report. A…

This article was originally posted on the Beef Cattle Research Council’s website on April 4, 2022. Does it feel like grazing management information is shrouded in acronyms and terms that boggle the mind on first glance? Do you struggle to decipher terms like animal unit equivalents? And how does one go about calculating AUMs and then…

The Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP) has undergone some significant changes in its water program. The Sustainable CAP Water Program supports primary producers in securing, protecting, and managing sustainable water sources. Whether through new or expanded dugouts, farmers can enhance water security at the farm level. Changes to the grant were brought forward from…

Do you own a pre-2002 confined feeding operation? Help protect its future with a formal grandfathering determination from the NRCB Did your operation exist, or was it permitted by the county, before the Agricultural Operation Practices Act (AOPA) came into effect on January 1, 2002? If so, now is the time to request a formal…

This article was originally posted on the Beef Cattle Research Council’s website on March 30, 2023. Whether you use a computer software system or track herd records by hand, there are four record keeping GOLD standards that can be determined for your cow-calf operation and compared to beef industry benchmarks for the same indicators. By…

The NRCB recognizes that many areas of the province are dealing with drought conditions. If these conditions continue into the 2024 growing season, they could cause poor grass pastures, lack of water for livestock, lack of harvestable forage crops, and the summer confined feeding of cow-calf herds may be necessary. Under normal conditions, confined feeding…

The Canadian Angus Association will receive $3.8M to increase Canadian cattle producers’ ability to make data-driven decisions based on genomics to economically benefit their commercial livestock operations. The investment will be used to develop a genetic selection tool to equip producers with breeding data to select the best replacement heifers to improve their herds. Using…