Issues & Insights

Producers still dealing with drought fallout, but looking ahead to better days By Alexis Kienlen, Alberta Farmer Express Cattle producers are feeling cautiously hopeful, thanks to June and July rains. “It’s a sigh of huge relief, as least what I experienced in this area — it’s just a burden of worry lifted,” said Fred Lozeman,…

The Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Ministers of Agriculture announced the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership following their Annual Meeting. This five-year agreement, in principle, will see $500 million in new funds, increasing the cost-shared portion of funding by 25 percent. Ministers agreed to improve Business Risk Management (BRM) programs, with a raise to the AgriStability compensation…

Ground meat is a nutritious food and saying it is high in saturated fat is misleading and harmful, groups say By James Snell Alberta cattle producers say they are feeling betrayed by the federal government after Health Canada recently announced a plan to add saturated fat warning labels to ground meat. “Labelling ground beef — an affordable, nutritious…

Researchers at the University of Calgary are looking at potential ways to manage the health of wood bison, with a focus on tuberculosis and brucellosis, and they need your help. Drs. David C. Hall and Kyle Plotsky, independent researchers employed by the University of Calgary, are working on a Parks Canada funded project to understand peoples’…

Antimicrobial use in beef cattle production greatly benefits animal health. But, it has come under scrutiny in recent years, due to increasing incidents of antimicrobial resistance. To bring you the full story, we spoke to an animal health scientist and a feedlot veterinarian about the benefits and challenges of antimicrobial use, the developing risk of…

By CBC News After last year’s summer drought prompted many Alberta cattle ranchers to cull their herds, ongoing dry weather this winter and spring, especially in the southern part of the province, could mean more of the same. “If we don’t get some significant rainfall, you know, in my area in the next couple of weeks,…

By Sylvain Charlebois Looks like we will all see different symbols on food packaging soon, telling us whether a food product at the grocery store has too much fat, sugar or sodium. Health Canada is likely going forward shortly with a policy requiring front-of-package nutrition symbols on foods high in saturated fat, sugars and sodium….

Are you a woman who leads a farm, works on a farm, or otherwise contributes to a farm? Farm Management Canada and CentricEngine Inc. are working on a research project to provide a “comprehensive baseline for understanding the roles, status, barriers and opportunities to support women involved in farming.” As part of that project, they’ve…