Beef cattle feeding in Ontario. (DebraLee Wiseberg/iStock/Getty Images)

Ontario plugs holes in wildlife compensation plan

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario’s agriculture ministry has patched a glitch in its wildlife damage compensation program, in which farmers’ claims risked rejection over the validity of their farm business registrations. “We heard livestock farmers’ concerns with the program so we’re making the first changes effective immediately,” Agriculture Minister Ernie Hardeman said in a release Monday. “We’re also continuing […] Read more

Chickpeas. (CalypsoArt/iStock/Getty Images)

Some Canadian Exotic Grains customers compensated

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — A few producers who did not receive payment from Canadian Exotic Grains Ltd. have been compensated through the Canadian Grain Commission’s Safeguards for Grain Farmers Program, the commission said Tuesday. Canadian Exotic Grain’s grain dealer license was revoked April 26 after the company was unable to pay producers. On June 4, Saskatchewan […] Read more


Tuberculosis bacteria under an electron microscope. (Janice Haney Carr photo courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.))

All quarantines lifted in bovine TB probe

Reading Time: 2 minutes The mystery of how six Prairie cattle caught a Mexican strain of bovine tuberculosis (TB) is now expected to remain a mystery indefinitely. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Monday announced quarantines have been lifted from all Prairie cattle operations tested during its probe of a bovine TB outbreak beginning in the fall of 2016. […] Read more

(BungeMOE.com)

Bunge widens exec takeover payout scheme after Glencore approach

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters –– Grain merchant Bunge Ltd. has sweetened compensation packages for top executives in the case of a takeover, according to the company’s regulatory filings, around six months after rebuffing an approach by commodity trading giant Glencore. Bunge and its rivals have seen profits fall as several years of oversupply in global grains […] Read more


Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham met Wednesday in Victoria. (Photo courtesy AAFC)

Options weighed for AgriRecovery in B.C. fire zones

Reading Time: 2 minutes Officials in British Columbia are now gauging what sorts of damages and expenses can be covered through an AgriRecovery plan for ranchers and farmers affected by wildfires. The federal and B.C. governments announced Wednesday they’re “working together to quickly assess the extraordinary costs farmers are incurring and what additional assistance may be required to recover […] Read more

Signs of CWD, as shown by this elk, include progressive weight loss, reluctance to move, excessive salivation, droopy ears, increased drinking and urinating and lethargy. (Wyoming Game and Fish Department photo, WGFD.wyo.gov)

Federal response tightened for chronic wasting disease

Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian ranchers raising cervids such as elk, deer and moose will soon have to get in on certification programs before they can be eligible for any federal help in the event of a chronic wasting disease (CWD) outbreak. One of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) family of nervous system diseases, such as BSE in cattle […] Read more


(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Quarantined Alberta ranches to get AgriRecovery

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ranchers in southeastern Alberta having to feed and maintain quarantined cattle they can’t move or sell can expect a federal/provincial AgriRecovery plan to help cover those costs in the next few days. Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and his Alberta counterpart Oneil Carlier on Wednesday announced producers faced with “extraordinary costs” due to federal quarantines […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Federal Tories, NDP press for TB quarantine compensation

Reading Time: 2 minutes Under pressure in the Commons Tuesday, the federal government has committed to “look into options” to compensate Alberta and Saskatchewan producers having to feed cattle they’re prohibited from selling. Federal Conservative and NDP agriculture critics David Anderson and Ruth Ellen Brosseau separately took the government to task this week over the costs producers have to […] Read more


Skim milk powder. (PelchGroup.com)

Dairy farmers, processors strike deal for future

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa — Dairy Farmers of Canada and dairy processor associations have reached an agreement in principle on how to evolve the Canadian dairy system for the future. The agreement was reached during meetings in Charlottetown following a year of talks, which followed previous attempts to open a dialogue over pricing and other issues. Details of […] Read more

A bill allowing state expropriations of South African farmland now goes to President Jacob Zuma, shown here Wednesday at Africa Day celebrations in Cape Town, for his signature. (South African Government GCIS photo via Flickr)

South Africa’s parliament approves land expropriation bill

Reading Time: 2 minutes Johannesburg | Reuters — South Africa’s parliament on Thursday approved a bill allowing state expropriations of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership, an emotive issue two decades after the end of apartheid. Most of South Africa’s land remains in white hands and many commercial and small-scale farmers are currently facing tough times because […] Read more