Reading Time: 2 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Ontario Sheep Farmers (OSF) wants to support flock expansion and has begun a first-of-its-kind financing program in partnership with Scotiabank. Previously only available for cash croppers, the Scotiabank Yield More Financing (YMF) program is now available for Ontario shepherds. Why it matters: The funding is designed to provide shepherds with the cash flow […] Read more
New OSF funding program could help shepherds expand flocks
Scotiabank YMF livestock funding program provides funds to buy ewes and feeder lambs
U.S. sheep herders’ suit alleges cartel-like wage suppression
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters –– Sheep herders in the U.S. West have banded together to sue their employers, accusing them of operating an illegal cartel that artificially suppresses their wages, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Nevada. The case could have implications for how antitrust laws are applied to labour markets, according to legal experts, as the […] Read more
U.S. to lift BSE-related rules off sheep, goat imports
New scrapie-specific rules take effect next month
Reading Time: 3 minutes U.S. restrictions that have hindered that country’s imports of live Canadian sheep and goats, going back to the start of the BSE crisis in 2003, are set to be scrapped and replaced with rules applying specifically to scrapie. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on Friday published a new […] Read more
Britain, New Zealand strike free trade deal
Reading Time: 2 minutes London/Wellington | Reuters — Britain and New Zealand have reached agreement in principle on a free trade deal designed to reduce tariffs, improve services trade, and take London one step closer to membership in a broader trans-Pacific trade agreement. Prime ministers Boris Johnson and Jacinda Ardern sealed the deal in a Zoom call on Wednesday […] Read more
StatsCan sees higher cattle, hog inventories at July 1
Full impacts of West's drought not yet counted
Reading Time: 3 minutes Nationwide head counts of livestock from the “early stages” of Western Canada’s ongoing drought won’t yet show the weather’s full impact, but showed slightly larger herds heading into this summer compared to last year. Statistics Canada on Monday reported the first year-over-year increase in the size of the country’s cattle herd as of July 1 […] Read more
Anthrax kills southeastern Saskatchewan sheep
Spores forced up by changes in soil moisture
Reading Time: 2 minutes Dramatic shifts in soil moisture are again bringing anthrax spores to the surface on the Prairies, this time in a southeastern Saskatchewan sheep pasture. Lab results on Wednesday confirmed anthrax as the cause of death of one animal in a flock of sheep in the R.M. of South Qu’Appelle, about 50 km east of Regina, […] Read more
Turning Topsy right side up
What happens when a hippie commune learns that some strategic business skills could help it thrive?
Reading Time: 8 minutes When Topsy Farms started in 1971, the goal was simple. How could it need a complex business plan? Starting with five hippies, they were creating a commune on Amherst Island, just offshore in Lake Ontario west of Kingston. The goal was clear too — become a self-sustaining community, secluded from the outside world, a place […] Read more
Happiness, Iceland-style
There’s real romance to the history of Icelandic horses and sheep, and maybe real opportunity for these Canadian farmers
Reading Time: 7 minutes Over a thousand years ago, in the year 874, when the Vikings first landed on Iceland, they came with their sheep and horses, and the animals proved essential for the survival of those early Icelanders as they settled the rugged North Atlantic island. The horses served as transport and labour; the sheep provided meat, milk […] Read more
Blast kills at least 23 at Afghanistan livestock market
Area shelled in clashes between government forces, Taliban
Reading Time: 1 minute Kabul | Reuters — At least 23 civilians were killed in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province and dozens were wounded when rockets hit a cattle market on Monday, Afghan government and Taliban officials said. The warring sides blamed each other for the attack on the open-air weekly cattle market in Sangin district, where hundreds of villagers […] Read more
Uruguayan shearers flown in to relieve sweltering Spanish sheep
Expert shearers authorized to enter country amid COVID-19 pandemic
Reading Time: 2 minutes Villafale, Spain | Reuters — Brought to Spain on a special flight amid the coronavirus lockdown, some 250 Uruguayan sheep shearers race against time to shear millions of Spanish sheep as sweltering summer temperatures hit. The Uruguayan shearers come to Spain every year, where farmers value them for their skills, their speed and particular care […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
