Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg’s National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease is testing samples from a Manitoba wean-to-finish hog operation suspected of having the province’s first case of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv). The Manitoba Pork Council late Thursday announced that the province’s chief veterinary officer had reported what are believed to be positive samples of PEDv from hogs […] Read more
PEDv suspected on Manitoba hog farm
Co-op, Overwaitea to buy 29 grocery stores in West
Reading Time: 2 minutes Thirty grocery stores across Western Canada are set to change hands in the wake of Sobeys’ takeover of Canada Safeway. Sobeys Inc. on Thursday announced it has reached separate deals with Overwaitea Food Group and Federated Co-operatives for the sale of 15 and 14 stores respectively. The stores to be sold include 22 of 23 […] Read more
Scoular frozen out of Sask. grain handling plan
Reading Time: 3 minutes A Toronto company building a commodity logistics hub in Saskatchewan’s southeast corner has cut its ties with the U.S. agrifood firm set to bankroll the hub’s planned grain elevator. Toronto’s Ceres Global Ag Corp. announced Thursday it has “terminated its arrangements” with The Scoular Co. and will instead bring the design and development of the […] Read more
New standard to define icewine in Canada
Reading Time: 2 minutes If it’s not made only with grapes naturally frozen on the vine, it can’t be called icewine. As obvious as it may seem, a new move to enshrine that notion in the federal Agricultural Products Act is expected to ease and boost exports of Canada’s most lucrative wines and weed out any pretenders claiming to […] Read more
Mexican bakery giant to buy Canada Bread
Reading Time: 3 minutes The reported frontrunner to buy Canada Bread is now officially the Canadian bakery firm’s buyer of choice. Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo on Wednesday announced a cash deal to buy all shares of Canada Bread Co. for $72 per share, or about $1.83 billion, accruing mainly to Canada Bread’s 90 per cent owner, meat processor Maple Leaf […] Read more
Flaherty’s budget to expand livestock tax deferrals to bees
Reading Time: 3 minutes Plans to bring beekeepers in on income deferrals available to certain livestock breeders, and to further expand rural broadband, are among the pre-Valentine’s Day candies for farmers in Tuesday’s federal budget. Federal budgets in recent years have been relatively light on line items meant directly for farmers, as ag program funding is largely locked into […] Read more
Feed firm purging hog-based ingredients over PED risk
Reading Time: 2 minutes A southern Ontario feed processor wants customers to stop feeding its nursery feeds to young hogs, over concerns that feeds made with hog-based ingredients can be a “potential vector” for the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv). PEDv, a contagious disease leading to death rates of up to 100 per cent in young piglets and is […] Read more
Wireworm action added to cereal seed treatment
Reading Time: < 1 minute Bayer CropScience has installed a neonicotinoid wireworm defense in the latest version of its Raxil cereal seed treatment. The company last week launched Raxil PRO Shield, which includes the active fungicides from Bayer’s Raxil PRO formulation, tebuconazole, prothioconazole and metalaxyl. The new product, however, also includes imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide, in a new “Stress Shield” […] Read more
Coop Federee to close Que. hardware distribution centre
Reading Time: 2 minutes Agricultural co-operative La Coop federee plans to close the distribution centre supplying “hardware and material” to its Unimat chain of ag supply and hardware retail stores by early next year. The Quebec co-op giant, whose operations also include fuel company Sonic and meat packer Olymel, said Friday it will gradually shut down those distribution operations […] Read more
Alta. declares PEDv a reportable disease
Reading Time: < 1 minute Mindful of its potentially devastating effect on farrowing operations, and its recent arrival in Canada, Alberta has moved to declare the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) a reportable disease. Dr. Gerald Hauer, the province’s chief veterinarian, announced the change in PEDv’s status effective Jan. 20, citing “the economic harm that it could cause to the […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
