“We share, as a sector, all the same attributes as the rest of the farming sectors from genetics to raising animals in pens and dealing with animal welfare issues and animal health issues,” said Tim Kennedy, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance.

WHY IT MATTERS: The aquaculture industry says demand is there for Canadian seafood but without sufficient support, its seeing more imported product moving into grocery stores.

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance and seven provincial aquaculture organizations wrote a letter to the federal, provincial and territorial governments. They called on them to use Canada’s Next Policy Framework for Agriculture to help their sector grow — and to class the industry under Agriculture Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).

“Our lead department has been the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is a habitat protection and fisheries management department. They deal with the wild capture sector,” Kennedy said.

Aquaculture is the farming of fish and seafood.

Aquaculture as agriculture for growth

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans isn’t growth oriented. AAFC is, Kennedy said.

“We have flat lined in Canadian production for aquaculture for 20 years, and we have the largest coastline in the world.”

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance has been asking to be classed under AAFC for the past ten years. The aquaculture industry could then be classed as agricultural and reap some of the same benefits as agricultural industries. For example, aquaculture farmers would have access to the AgriInnovate program.

The aquaculture sector would also like a collaborative insurance program for shellfish farmers and freshwater producers.

Aquaculture is a $5 billion sector in terms of economic activity — the equivalent of 1.4 per cent of farm gate sales in Canada.

“In terms of a relative comparison to the rest of the ag sector, that’s small,” said Kennedy. “One thing people should know is we’ve only been around as a commercial sector for 45 years. We’re young. Salmon production started 50 years ago.”

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance has about 65 members. Members include people who raise fish such as salmon, rainbow trout, Artic char, mussels and oysters.

Aquaculture farmers also grow a small amount of seaweed, which is largely used for animal feed.

Atlantic salmon farming biggest growth area

Atlantic salmon make up 80 per cent of the aquaculture sector. They’re farmed in British Columbia, New Brunswick, and the other Atlantic provinces. There is some rainbow trout production in Ontario and on the Prairies.

“Atlantic salmon is the most popular seafood product in North America and increasingly in Europe and around the world,” Kennedy said. “It’s like the rest of the farming sector, when you have an animal, a breed that is particularly good for production, like Holsteins or Herefords. Atlantic salmon are good to raise as farmed animals.”

Atlantic salmon are easy to raise in pens, unlike Pacific salmon, which are much harder to farm.

The demand for seafood is there, especially for salmon.

“I think because of the lack of overall support for the aquaculture sector, we’ve seen some declines,” Kennedy said.

There have also been some government-mandated shutdowns in British Columbia.

In 2024, the federal government announced it would ban open net-pen salmon farming by June 2029 and would require farms to transition to closed containment or other aquaculture systems.

“What we’re seeing is more product coming from other countries, especially Chile, into Canadian grocery stores. Canadians can’t buy the Canadian salmon they want to buy. This has been a real problem,” Kennedy said.

A deeper partnership between Agriculture and Agri-food Canada and aquaculture would produce a lot more salmon in Canada, for Canadians.

“I’d say globally as well. Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector in the world. There is an increasing demand for high quality animal protein. We’re low carbon footprint. We’re a very efficient product,” he said. “For instance, in the salmon sector, we’re basically about one kilogram of feed is producing 1 kilogram of fish.”

Benefits for the rest of the farming sector

In the letter, the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance and the seven provincial groups highlighted value-added opportunities for the rest of the farm sector. When the sector first started, a lot of the fish was fed entirely marine based products. Now the Canadian sector only uses about 20 per cent marine based ingredients. About 80 per cent of the ingredients are from land-based farms.

The aquaculture sector is using oils, grains and ingredients like chicken offal, that would otherwise be put in waste products.

“If we can increase production, we’re going to increase the value add in Canada for other farmers,” said Kennedy.

The Next Policy Framework will be completed by 2028. Earlier this year, the federal government it was starting consultations across the country.

The next federal, provincial, territorial meeting will be held in Halifax in July. Kennedy said the areas of focus and decisions of what sectors are included under the Department of Agriculture and Agri-food could be announced by then.

“We’re still a couple of years away, but now is the time for all of the considerations and planning,” he said. “This is a very important time for us.”

The post Canadian aquaculture should be classed as agriculture, industry groups say appeared first on Country Guide.

Applications for the foundation’s 2026 Community Fund for Mental Health opened on March 30.

In 2026, the fund will provide rural and agricultural communities with access to Talk, Act, Listen, which is Do More Ag’s flagship mental health literacy workshop.

WHY IT MATTERS: Canadian farmers face persistent stressors that take a toll on their mental health.

Through this workshop, participants can build confidence in starting informed conversations about mental health, develop practical support skills and strengthen local networks to help individuals and families thrive.

The program is designed to recognize the unique stresses in agricultural life.

In 2025, the community fund received applications from nearly 80 communities across 11 provinces and territories with 42 workshops delivered across seven provinces.

Non-profit community groups and organizations based in rural and agricultural regions can learn more at Do More Ag Community Fund.

The 2026 application period closes April 30.

The post Do More Ag to fund rural groups’ mental health workshops appeared first on Country Guide.

On March 27, federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald announced that the government will propose amendments to the Income Tax Act to extend the income tax deferral period for livestock producers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Eligible producers received compensation for their animals to be destroyed due to bovine tuberculosis in 2024 and 2025.

This action is a response to concerns from livestock producers about the challenges of replenishing their herds during the same tax year that they received compensation.

Under the Health of Animals Act, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency provided compensation to livestock producers whose animals were destroyed in 2024 and 2025 due to the bovine TB outbreak.

A section of the Income Tax Act allows for only a one-year deferral, but the proposed amendments will allow livestock producers to defer compensation for a prescribed schedule from 2026 to 2030, enabling them to have greater flexibility to manage their incomes and sustain their operations as they rebuild their herds.

Producers who received amounts as compensation in 2025 or 2026 under the Health of Animals Act because they had to destroy their animals due to tuberculosis outbreaks will have the option of including those amounts in income for tax purposes as follows:

• Up to 100 per cent of the compensation deferred to the 2027 tax year, with at least 83 per cent included in income in 2027.
• Up to 17 per cent of the compensation deferred to the 2028 tax year, with at least nine per cent included in income in 2028.
• Up to eight per cent of the compensation deferred to the 2029 tax year, with at least four per cent included in income in 2029.
• Up to four per cent of the compensation deferred to the 2030 tax year, with the remaining four per cent included in income in 2030.

The post Producers affected by bovine TB receive extended tax deferral appeared first on Country Guide.

Why it matters: Sencor’s portfolio products add more crop protection solutions for Canadian growers.

Sencor products have been used for decades on tough broadleaf and grassy weeds across a wide range of crops, including pulses, potatoes and soybeans. With the new integration of Sencor products, Sipcam Agro will expand proven herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and biostimulants.

Sencor products are a Group 5 mode of action, making them an important tool to help growers manage weed resistance.

Sipcam will soon begin managing all sales, marketing and distribution activities for Sencor 75 DF and Sencor 480 F in Canada.

Sipcam is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. Since 2024, Sipcam Agro in Canada has focused on supplying crop protection products to Canadian farmers.

akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

The post Sencor crop protection products now available from SipCam Agro Canada appeared first on Country Guide.

This is the first confirmed case of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) in Alberta since February 2022. The disease first arrived in Alberta in 2019.

The affected farm has a three-kilometre and a 10-kilometre buffer zone around it to prevent the disease from spreading. No other farms are located within these zones.

The impacted producer is working with the provincial chief veterinarian officer and Alberta Pork to investigate the source of the outbreak, contain the disease and avoid further spread.

As of February 19, all facilities participating in Alberta Pork’s Environmental Disease Monitoring Program have tested negative for PEDv and porcine deltacoronavirus.

Alberta Pork advised farmers to practice strict biosecurity protocols. Producers should enhance biosecurity on-farm and in transportation and submit all swine manifests, including farm-to-farm movements, in a timely manner. Any place off farm, such as an abattoir, should be considered as a potential source for spreading PEDv.

What is PEDv?

PEDv causes diarrhea and vomiting in pigs. The illness can kill younger pigs in herds that have not been previously exposed to the virus.

PEDv does not pose a risk to human health, food safety or other animals. The disease can be spread by direct contact between infected and non-infected pigs, but also by people’s clothing, boots, vehicles, equipment and any items contaminated by the feces of infected animals.

The disease is provincially regulated in Alberta, and suspect cases must be reported to the provincial authorities. Producers should contact their veterinarians immediately if their animals exhibit signs of PEDv.

The post Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea found on a southern Alberta farm appeared first on Country Guide.

“As Canada looks to diversify trade and strengthen economic resilience, agriculture must be part of the solution,” said Erin Gowriluk, Canada Grains Council president in a Jan. 26 news release.

“Science-based, risk-based regulation is essential to maintaining market access and ensuring Canadian farmers can continue to innovate.”

WHY IT MATTERS: As Canada looks to diversify agricultural trade away from the United States, non-tariff barriers may hamper progress the Canada Grains Council says.

The council also recommended the Government of Canada use bilateral trade mechanisms to oppose the European Union’s strict pesticide regulations.

In the report, the council said Canada’s trading situation is shifting drastically since the United States is no longer a reliable trading partner. However, regulatory differences could make it harder for Canada to build its trading relationships.

This include trades rules from other countries that are not based on objective science, and do not follow internationally accepted risk assessments, the council said.

Non-tariff trade barriers are some of the most restrictive barriers for agricultural innovation, and they are increasing according to the report. Standards related to the regulation of agricultural innovations, e.g. crop protection products, put Canadian trade at risk.

For example, under the Canadian-European Union Comprehensive Trade Agreement (CETA), most tariffs were removed from Canadian agricultural imports. However, many countries in the EU have non-tariff trade barriers, which made trading more difficult for Canada.

The EU has taken a precautionary approach to agriculture innovations like crop protection products. Over the past 10 years, the EU has removed about half of the crop protection tools available to its own farmers. Because of this, the EU is under pressure to block farming imports using farming tools that are no longer allowed in Europe, even when those products have been proven safe.

Depending on how the EU implements so-called “reciprocity” rules, Canadian grain exports could be restricted or halted. Canadian trade could also be negatively affected as many countries around the world are influenced by EU trade policies.

The council said Canada should lead a coalition of like-minded countries to aim for systemic improvements in setting maximum residue levels. It should also work to prevent regulatory overreach for agricultural innovation in other countries.

Since Canada is engaged with trade at multiple levels, the country will be able to make the most of bilateral mechanisms within CETA to address the EU’s inclination to turn away from agricultural innovations.

Canada and its other trading partners can take on a strong objective to prevent non-tariff trade barriers, using diplomacy and scientific information, the council added.

The post Canada must resist EU non-tariff trade barriers says Grains Council appeared first on Country Guide.

Macdonald said the news that China would lift its ban on Canadian beef came abruptly.

“When the door opened, it opened,” he said.

Macdonald announced on social media on Monday that China had lifted its ban on Canadian beef, which had been in place since December 2021.

This followed the Jan. 16 news that China and Canada had reached an agreement to lower tariffs on Canadian products like canola seed and meal. A federal explainer at the time said Canada also expected China to “accelerate the resumption” of imports of Canadian beef.

MacDonald addresses pork tariffs

MacDonald also said Chinese tariffs on Canadian pork were on the agenda in Beijing despite no movement on the levies.

“Those discussion are going to have to be further approached,” he said.

“One of the issues we face with pork in China is that they produce over 90 per cent themselves,” the minister added. “There still is a market there for us, and we’ll continue to pursue that.”

Trade to return to 2021 levels: AAFC

Canadian Cattle Association president Tyler Fulton said the re-opening comes after years of advocacy.

Fulton said the CCA learned that beef trade would resume with China when Prime Minister Carney and MacDonald were in China.

As of Tuesday morning Fulton had no details about the deal — including what kind of beef will be allowed into the Chinese market, and what volume of beef will be allowed in.

An Agriculture Agri-Food Canada official told Glacier FarmMedia on Tuesday afternoon that beef trade will return to 2021 levels. Mainland China was Canada’s fourth-largest customer for beef in 2021, importing a bit more than 20,000 tons according to Canada Beef statistics.

Canadian beef has not been exported to China since December 2021 when China shut its borders due to an atypical case of BSE in Alberta. Prior to the halt in trade, Canadian beef was seeing “continued growth” in the Chinese market, the CCA said in a news release.

Next steps for CCA

“Just to remind everyone that the issue relates to an atypical case of BSE that was found in 2021. It’s a naturally occurring variant that we found. All the other markets that we shipped to stayed open,” said Fulton, who runs a cow-calf operation near Birtle, Man.

Fulton said the Canadian Cattle Association will need to learn about new safeguards, since they haven’t shipped beef to China since 2021.

“We’re optimistic that there will be space for us, and that we can pursue material access that will make a difference for beef producers,” he said.

“We think there’s some unallocated quota that would be available in China that isn’t currently connected to a specific country, and so we’ll pursue that initially. One of the critical aspects here is that some of the cuts coming off a beef carcass can see significant premium in that market,” said Fulton.

Hopes for added value

“Our hope really is to add extra value to the carcasses here in Canada, by greater access to the big market of China,” he said.

The cattle market benefits when more of the carcass is used, since there are many cuts that aren’t in high demand in North America.

“We can add significant value to the carcass when we have access to some of these markets that desire the niche type products,” he said.

The CCA are pleased with the new trade agreements between Canada and China.

“We’re supportive. We know the bread and butter of the beef industry in Canada is really based on market access. We acknowledge and rely on our biggest trading partner, the U.S. And so, we remain focussed on the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement (CUSMA) and ensuring that we can maintain tariff free access,” said Fulton.

-With files from Jonah Grignon

The post Canadian beef could be headed to China by next week says Agriculture Minister appeared first on Country Guide.

Research into alternative lactation housing system, passive barn-cooling technologies to reduce heat stress, and advanced food safety protocols to improve pork quality was also funded.

Swine Innovation Porc announced four new research projects under its Advancing Swine Research initiative. Swine Innovation Porc is a research coordination organization funded by Canada’s national and provincial pork boards.

The four projects are also supported by the federally-established Pork Promotion and Research Agency. Swine Innovation Porc will contribute up to $488,347 for a total of $1.18 million in total project funding.

The Advanced Swine Research initiative supports one to three-year projects running from 2025 to 2028.

The post Swine Innovation Porc funds vaccine, barn cooling research appeared first on Country Guide.

Brocklebank is currently the executive director of the Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC), a division of the Canadian Cattle Association.

Brocklebank will be replacing executive vice president Dennis Laycraft, who is retiring. Laycraft will be maintaining business as usual until the leadership transition takes place in March.

Brockleback was chosen based on the reccomendation of an executive recruitment firm.

“She’s been leading the BCRC for about 20 years and it’s grown tremendously over that time, including building a reputation for being a very trusted, credible organization that keeps producers at the centre of all its decisions,” said BCRC communications director Tracy Herbert.

During that time, the research council has funded important research and collaborated with many other groups.

“Our extension and knowledge mobilization portfolio started under Andrea’s leadership and has grown tremendously as well,” Herbert said.

“Andrea was born and raised on a beef operation and manages it now with her husband, so she’s very grounded in the realities of production and takes a very pragmatic approach and strategic forward-thinking approach to her leadership.”

“Working with Andrea for the past 15 years, I’ve watched and been inspired by her qualities, which are integrity, resilience, humility and clarity, and she has led a fantastic culture here at the BCRC,” Herbert said.

”It’s a culture of pragmatism, respectfulness and curiosity, and those are some of the qualities that have contributed to her success, her positive impact and her collaboration. Those will serve her very well at the CCA.”

The CEO role is new to the Canadian Cattle Association. CCA president Tyler Fulton said it was chosen because it more accurately represents the role of the senior staff member.

Herbert will be BCRC’s interim executive director. She has led the BCRC’s knowledge mobilization and communications program since 2011.

Herbert lives in Lloydminster. Her family operates a mixed farm between Neilburg and Maidstone, Sask.

-Updated Jan. 7

The post Brocklebank named Canadian Cattle Association CEO appeared first on Country Guide.

Richard Gray, professor in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan and Canadian Grain Policy Research Chair at the University of Saskatchewan, together with Michelle Ross, research assistant at the University of Saskatchewan College of Agriculture and Bioresources, have been commissioned by the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) to conduct a benefit-cost analysis evaluating the Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster (ICAC).

“With the overall study, we’re hoping to better understand the value and impact of research in the cluster,” said Ross.

The ICAC is an agricultural research cluster created to address the gap in multi-crop and systems-based agronomy research. From 2018-2023, nine million dollars were invested in ICAC research, with funding from WGRF, industry partners and Agriculture and Agri-food (AAFC) Canada’s AgriScience Cluster funding under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP).

With ICAC, most of what has been generated in the cluster is general agronomic knowledge that has built up over time to help producers,

“We’re focussing on three separate tools in the cluster, and those are the Fusarium Headblight Maps, the Prairie Crop Disease Network and the Test Monitoring Network,” she said.

All three are free for producers.

Building awareness

“The kind of questions that we’re asking is overall awareness of these public resources for both producers and agrologists and where producers and agrologists access this information,” she said.

The survey will improve understanding about how these resources are used, and if they affect farm decisions, she said.

“What initiated the research is that AAFC is making this a requirement under the next round of funding agri-science clusters with the SCAP (Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership) model for funding,” she said.

“We need to understand the impact of the funding, and while there are a lot of studies on how there are high returns overall to agriculture research, more research is needed to quantify those benefits, including research of the agri-science cluster,” she said.

Tough decisions

Ross said tough decisions need to be made when public and producer dollars are spent.

“Having evidence-based decision making is needed to best serve everyone; the industry and the public,” she said.

The survey is looking to gauge farmers and agrologists’ awareness of the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network, The Fusarium Headblight Maps, and the Test Monitoring Network.

Ross and Gray also want to find out whether producers and agrologists are using these tools to make decisions on farms.

Ross said participating in this survey is good for farmers, because while ICAC is publicly funded, but also funded through industry groups, and groups like the WGRF.

“Producer money has been used to do this research and create these resources,” she said.

“This goes back to due diligence, because there’s a very long wish list on what money could be spent on, so we need to understand the impact of this research,” she said.

The survey is quite short and will take a producer about 15 minutes to fill out. The survey can be completed on the phone, or on the web.

Ross said she hopes many producers and agrologists fill out the survey, so the research team can get a clear picture across the prairies.

The survey is open until December 31, 2025 and can be found here- https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/AgronomyResourcesSurvey

akienlen@fbcpublishing.com

The post Survey looks to gauge whether producers are aware of free agronomic tools and where producer funds are going appeared first on Country Guide.