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Sheep-lambs

Jeanette Heffernan (left) and Katie Sherratt (right).
Features

Soil sisters

Guide Canada: When people assume that Jeanette Heffernan and Katie Sherratt are sisters, the pair don’t bother to correct them. They’ve learned it’s better to tackle one stereotype at a time

By
Reading Time: 8 minutes The two young women at Tipsy Willow Farm break a lot of preconceptions about farming. That’s true on many farms, of course, especially where the next generation is in their early twenties and they’re introducing new concepts to the family farm in order to launch their own farming careers. But it’s even more true here. […] Read more
“We plan to keep planting,” says Jade King. With prices up to $300 per kg, the market is red hot.
Guide Business, Marketing, News

Three farms find ways to live it up

Yes, farms can aim at five-star markets, as Nuffield farms show around the world

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Reading Time: 7 minutes When we think of farm diversification here in Canada, we usually imagine new crops or livestock, maybe some value-adding, or possibly some entry-level agri-tourism. How often, though, would you think of going after the top end of a luxury market?  Below, meet three farms that have successfully diversified their income streams by targeting luxury offers […] Read more
New Zealand looks a world away but farmers there share the same HR frustrations as Canadian farmers, and the same opportunities too.
Guide Business, Management

These farmers call it teamwork

As these Nuffield farmers are learning, time invested in your HR makes all the difference

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Reading Time: 10 minutes It is well known that Canadian farms are limited by labour shortages. Pre-COVID-19 studies say Canadian farms already faced a labour gap of 63,000 positions in 2018, set to increase to 123,000 within this decade, and research by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) estimates that labour shortages during COVID-19 pandemic resulted in $2.9 […] Read more
Dana Thatcher of Thatcher Farms located in Ontario.
Features, Guide Business

Value adding, with a flourish

What does it take to thrive with a farm that value adds? The answer surprised Dana Thatcher, and it will likely surprise you too

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Reading Time: 6 minutes When Dana Thatcher started getting compliments from the other teachers at school about the food she was bringing for lunch, little did she know it would lead to a thriving farm, food and agri-tourism business.  “People were interested in what I was eating, and the fact that we had grown it,” Thatcher recalls. “That’s what […] Read more
(Fly View Productions/E+/Getty Images)
Livestock, Markets, Reuters

U.S. packer profit margins jumped 300 per cent during pandemic, economists say

Increased costs don't explain higher profits, White House advisors say

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters — Four of the biggest meat-processing companies, using their market power in the highly consolidated U.S. market to drive up meat prices and underpay farmers, have tripled their own net profit margins since the pandemic started, White House economics advisers said. Financial statements of the meat-processing companies — which control 55 to […] Read more
File photo of goats on display at the Hanover Agricultural Fair in Grunthal, Man. in August 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)
Livestock, Sheep/Goats

U.S. to lift BSE-related rules off sheep, goat imports

New scrapie-specific rules take effect next month

By
Reading Time: 3 minutes U.S. restrictions that have hindered that country’s imports of live Canadian sheep and goats, going back to the start of the BSE crisis in 2003, are set to be scrapped and replaced with rules applying specifically to scrapie. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on Friday published a new […] Read more
An information label is seen on packaging for a CO2 cylinder for a fizzy drinks machine in Manchester, Britain on Sept. 20, 2021. (Photo: Reuters)/Phil Noble)
Livestock, Reuters

Britain tells its food industry to prepare for CO2 price shock

U.K. pays fertilizer maker CF Industries to reopen plants

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Reading Time: 3 minutes London | Reuters — Britain warned its food producers on Wednesday to prepare for a 400 per cent rise in carbon dioxide prices after extending emergency state support to avert a shortage of poultry and meat triggered by soaring costs of wholesale natural gas. Natural gas prices have spiked this year as economies reopened from […] Read more
An information label is seen on packaging for a CO2 cylinder for a fizzy drinks machine in Manchester, Britain on Sept. 20, 2021. (Photo: Reuters)/Phil Noble)
Livestock, Markets, Reuters

U.K. meat industry warns of threat to supplies from CO2 crisis

CO2 shortage is caused by closure of fertilizer plants

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Reading Time: 2 minutes London | Reuters — Some of Britain’s meat processors will run out of carbon dioxide (CO2) within five days, forcing them to halt production and impacting supplies to food retailers, the head of the industry’s lobby group warned on Monday. A jump in gas prices has forced several domestic energy suppliers out of business and […] Read more
(Dave Bedard photo)
Livestock, Markets

StatsCan sees higher cattle, hog inventories at July 1

Full impacts of West's drought not yet counted

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Nationwide head counts of livestock from the “early stages” of Western Canada’s ongoing drought won’t yet show the weather’s full impact, but showed slightly larger herds heading into this summer compared to last year. Statistics Canada on Monday reported the first year-over-year increase in the size of the country’s cattle herd as of July 1 […] Read more
(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)
Crops, Hay, Weather

Plans afoot to move hay from East to drought-hit West

CFA, BFO spearheading Hay West-style initiatives

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Farm groups are spearheading new plans to get livestock feed from Eastern Canada to drought-damaged regions of the western provinces and northwestern Ontario. Details are still pending, but the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) announced Aug. 12 it has started work on a “Hay West” initiative to get surplus hay “to those struggling in the […] Read more

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