Issues & Insights

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…

More funding, more vet and vet technologist training won’t fix problem overnight, warns the AVMA By James Snell, Alberta Farmer Express There’s a major shortage of veterinary professionals in Alberta causing long wait times for routine livestock medical procedures. Introducing The Bovine — ABP’s inaugural podcast There are more than 840 veterinarian and veterinary technologist vacancies in Alberta…

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…

Livestock investigator says some have lost upward of $50,000 due to bad cheques By Jade Markus, CBC Calgary Due to last summer’s drought and winter’s supply chain issues, cattle feed is still hard to come by in Alberta — and what’s available comes at a cost.  That’s leading to a surge in scams, thefts and bad…