Ag News

Manitoba Pork recently highlighted some of the top producers during their Pork Quality Competition.

The event held during the Manitoba Winter Fair gives producers the opportunity to showcase their operations and the high-quality, sustainably produced pork raised here in Manitoba. 

The winners of this year's Pork Quality Competition:

Grand Champion and 1st Place - Wellwood Colony
Reserve Champion and 2nd Place - Sprucewoods Colony
3rd Place - Boundary Lane Colony

The Alberta Pulse Growers (APG) have named this year's recipient of the 10th annual Alberta Pulse Industry Innovator Award. 

Each year, APG recognizes a person or organization whose progressive thinking and tireless efforts helped build Alberta’s pulse industry into the flourishing sector that it is today.

Chair Shane Strydhorst says this year's honoree is Dr DJ Bing with Agriculture and AgriFood Canada's Lacombe Research and Development Centre. 

For many reasons, paperwork is often at the bottom of our priority list, especially as calving or lambing begins. Consider this your friendly reminder that we are headed into the season where record keeping should be bumped up on your to-do list.

The Province has announced this year's funding allocations under Saskatchewan's Short Line Railway Improvement Program.

Saskatchewan has 13 short line railways operating on 2,123 kilometres of track.

This year $530,000 will be split between the short-line railways based on the cost of their project, and the amount of track each shortline owns with the lines with more tracks receiving more money.

The money will be used for track upgrades and expansion, improved crossing surfaces and sightlines, bridge maintenance, track rehabilitations and other projects.

On Friday, the federal government announced funding for new innovative solutions to help deal with the ongoing labour challenges in the ag sector. 

Under Phase 2 of the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) program - Challenge Stream, five projects will each receive up to $1 million in funding.

The projects target the Canadian meat processing industry and the Canadian controlled environment agriculture industry - the concept is to advance automation and robotic technologies.

Checking out the Prairie Cattle Marketing Report for the week ending March 29th.

Manitoba feeder steer prices ranged from an average of $457.30 per cwt for the 401 to 500-pound weights to an average of $288.25 per cwt for the 901+ weights.

Feeder heifer prices ranged from an average of $400.40 per cwt for the 401 to 500 pounds, to $264.25 per cwt for the 901+ heifers.

Saskatchewan steer prices established new all-time highs last week in the 400 to 500 weight category with an average of $497.83 per cwt, down to $293 per cwt for the 800-900 pound steers.

Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn says the budget highlights several key investments for the province's agriculture sector.

One of the announcements getting a lot of attention is the $100,000 increase in the Young Farmer's Rebate Program from $200,000 to $300,000.

He says with the increased costs producers are facing they felt it was an opportune time to provide some additional borrowing capacity for young producers.

Manitoba Pork's General Manager Cam Dahl is pleased with the move saying access to capital is a limiting factor for agriculture.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. has now confirmed a human case of avian influenza with an individual that had contact with dairy cows that were believed to have the virus.

The individual's only symptom seemed to be eye inflammation.

The H5N1 bird flu human health risk for the U.S. is still considered to be low, however they note the risk is higher for anyone exposed to infected birds or animals.

This week's Provincial Budget highlighted some key funding announcements for Manitoba's Agriculture sector.

Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn says topping the list for him was the increase in funding for the "Young Farmer Rebate".

"We're going to increase the loan amount for producers from $200,000 to $300,000. So the borrowing capacity numbers have increased as well. Agriculture, commodity prices, and input costs continue to rise, so we really felt this was an opportune time that we needed to provide some additional borrowing capacity dollars for the young producers."

Saskatchewan's Deputy Agriculture Minister Rick Burton says the carbon tax is a significant hit for Saskatchewan producers.

"The carbon tax was at $65 per tonne and as of April 1st it'll be moving to $80 a tonne, at that rate its estimated cost to Saskatchewan producers will be around $137 million a year."

He says it adds costs to the inputs they are using and just about everything that's coming in or off their farm is impacted by the carbon price.

The Federal Liberal Carbox Tax Pricing plan would see the pricing increase to $170.00 per tonne by 2030.