Reading Time: < 1 minute Milan | Reuters — France’s Lactalis failed to reach the 90 per cent stake in Parmalat it required to proceed to delist the Italian food company in the last day of a buyout offer, a filing by the Milan bourse showed Tuesday. Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy firm, bought 15.11 per cent of the shares […] Read more
Lactalis short of threshold to delist Parmalat
Robot milker firm Lely to shed forage equipment business
Reading Time: 2 minutes Dutch dairy equipment manufacturer Lely, best known in the Canadian market for its robotic milking systems, plans to focus on that business and sell its forage equipment lines to Agco. The two companies announced Monday they have an agreement in principle for Lely to sell its forage division, including two German manufacturing plants, to U.S.-based […] Read more
The brother and sister advantage: Melinda Foster-Marshall and Mark Foster of Jockbrae Farms
Just because they’re siblings doesn’t mean Melinda and Mark instantly agree on everything. But they have a system for finding common ground, and once they’ve found it, they commit
Reading Time: 5 minutes Mark Foster and his sister Melinda Foster-Marshall never thought they’d be farming together. They had different personalities and routes through high school, but they have created roles and responsibilities and processes that are allowing their individual strengths to create a successful farming business. Melinda has a degree in geological sciences from Queen’s University and was […] Read more
The brother and sister advantage: Tom and Suzanne Pettit of Misty Glen Holsteins
There can be a kind of magic in a brother-sister relationship that helps them run a better farm business
Reading Time: 5 minutes A small but growing number of brother-and-sister farms across Canada are rewriting the rules on how families farm together in a new spirit of gender equality. Even more than that, though, they’re showing the rest of the industry how to step up their productivity with new management strategies that let every member of the team […] Read more
Dairy sector still working toward ingredients strategy
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian dairy industry has missed a self-imposed deadline for the Feb. 1 implementation of a national ingredients strategy — but work continues toward that implementation. The strategy is meant to create a lower-priced class of milk, Class 7, to encourage the use of skim milk powder in further-processed ingredients. Ontario has already independently implemented […] Read more
Agropur co-op names new chief
Reading Time: < 1 minute A dairy producer from the Centre-du-Quebec region is being promoted to the head of the board table at dairy co-operative Agropur. Rene Moreau, who farms south of Victoriaville at Warwick, Que., was announced Friday as Agropur’s new president, replacing Serge Riendeau, who led the board for the past 15 years. Moreau, one of Agropur’s vice-presidents […] Read more
Agropur raises 2016 sales, patronage dividends
Reading Time: 2 minutes Acquisitions and cost-cutting have combined to boost dairy co-operative Agropur’s year-end bottom line — and to raise its total patronage dividends for the year by 50 per cent. The Quebec co-operative, which in 2016 landed on Rabobank’s list of the world’s 20 largest dairy companies for the first time, booked net earnings before patronage and […] Read more
Scotsburn ice cream business sale to Agropur cleared
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s biggest dairy co-operative has been given the all-clear to close its deal for an Atlantic dairy co-op’s ice cream business. Agropur Co-operative on Thursday announced it has bought the assets of Truro, N.S.-based Scotsburn Co-operative Services, which include the company’s plants in Truro and in Lachute, Que. as well as the Scotsburn brand name. […] Read more
Lactalis offer for Italy’s Parmalat seen too low
Reading Time: 2 minutes Milan | Reuters — Parmalat activist investor Amber Capital believes the price of a buyout offer by France’s Lactalis undervalues the Italian dairy group and won’t be tendering its three per cent stake. Lactalis, which won control of Parmalat in 2011 amid failed efforts in Italy to mount a domestic counter bid, has launched an […] Read more
Ontario dairy sector optimistic with expanding demand
Reading Time: 4 minutes Ontario’s dairy industry is in a period of unprecedented growth, with over 15 per cent more quota going to dairy farmers in less than two years. There are almost certainly more quota increases to come, in order to increase milk production to displace significant volumes of butter now being imported. “It’s an absolutely great time […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
