Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters –– A downturn in France’s livestock sector has put thousands of farms close to bankruptcy, the government said Friday, as it seeks to contain a crisis that has undermined a flagship pledge to improve the livelihood of livestock producers. Farmers say a deteriorating international market, marked by a Russian food embargo, slowing […] Read more
France says livestock crisis putting thousands of farms at risk
Fonterra cuts dairy jobs as ‘white gold’ rush fizzles
Reading Time: 3 minutes Wellington | Reuters — New Zealand dairy exporter Fonterra is cutting jobs in an effort to shore up its cash flows as a slump in global dairy demand, particularly from No. 1 buyer China, threatens to snuff out the country’s “white gold” rush. Dairy prices have more than halved from record highs scaled in 2013, […] Read more
Parmalat getting land to expand Winnipeg milk plant
Reading Time: 3 minutes Dairy giant Parmalat plans to expand its Winnipeg milk operations and has been cleared to buy the acres to do so. While the Italian company’s Toronto-based Canadian arm has so far been quiet about its plans, Winnipeg’s city council on Wednesday voted to approve the sale of about 15 acres to Parmalat just south of […] Read more
U.S. said considering TPP trade deal without Canada
Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters — The United States, frustrated over the lack of progress with Canada over new rules for agriculture trade, is weighing “contingencies” that could include completing a Pacific Rim trade pact that excludes Canada, according to two sources familiar with the issue. One official familiar with the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiation said […] Read more
Agropur to shut Montreal-area milk plant
Reading Time: < 1 minute Quebec dairy co-operative Agropur plans to shut a Montreal-area fluid milk processing plant which it says has aged out of service. The company said Tuesday it will close its milk plant in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, which today employs 67 full-time and 27 “temporary” staff, by late May next year. “Considering the age and condition of the building […] Read more
Pitting supply management against U.S. subsidies seen as ‘unfair’
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — How will Canada’s supply management system stack up against America’s domestic supports if the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) comes to fruition? It’s a question that hasn’t been answered, say some experts from Canada’s farming institutions. “It would be completely unfair if we have to compete with lower prices, because those lower prices are […] Read more
When being organic isn’t enough
Their consumers don’t just want organic, says Martin de Groot. They want animal welfare, cow comfort, energy self-sufficiency… and they want to see it all in action
Reading Time: 5 minutes With the milk from their 60-cow, mostly Holstein herd, Martin de Groot, his wife Ineke Booy and their family make their Mapleton’s Organic line of ice creams and fresh and frozen yoghurts in their on-farm dairy at Moorefield, Ont., shipping their winter surplus through Harmony Organic Dairy Products. What they sell is much more, however, […] Read more
Dairy farmers worry Trans-Pacific trade deal could hurt
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s powerful dairy industry on Friday expressed concern it could suffer if talks to create a Pacific trade treaty open up heavily protected Canadian markets to more foreign competition. Some of the 12 nations taking part in negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) want Canada to start dismantling a system known […] Read more
High-fat dairy demand leaving Ont. skim milk homeless
Reading Time: 3 minutes Strong demand for high-butterfat dairy products, soft demand for fluid milk and maxed-out capacity to make skim milk powder have led Ontario’s dairy farmers in recent weeks to dump surplus skim milk in lagoons. A letter to producers last Friday from Dairy Farmers of Ontario board chairman Ralph Dietrich, intended to “put to rest the […] Read more
Quebec to halt ASRA for veal sector
Reading Time: 2 minutes Quebec’s farm finance and funding agency plans to remove the veal sector from the province’s ASRA income stabilization program starting next year. La Financiere agricole du Quebec (FADQ) announced Friday that its board had agreed to end ASRA (Assurance stabilisation des revenus agricoles) coverage for Quebec’s milk-fed veal calf operations, effective Jan. 1, 2016. Affected producers, after that […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
