Movements of birds, poultry products and poultry farm equipment are under new restrictions in the area where five poultry farms in British Columbia have been quarantined with avian flu. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Monday announced a new “primary control zone” in the entire southern half of B.C. south of Highway 16, split in […] Read more
Poultry, captive bird movements now limited in southern B.C.
New company set up to deliver BIXS livestock data system
A new company — a partnership between the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) and livestock technology company ViewTrak — plans to bring the newborn unsteadiness of an information exchange network to a full gallop for all Canadian livestock sectors. The as-yet unnamed private company was formed to bring the CCA’s beef information exchange system, BIXS, to […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME live cattle see biggest one-day percentage loss in three months
Chicago | Reuters –– Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures fell almost two per cent on Monday, their biggest daily percentage loss since early October, partly pressured by bearish fundamentals, traders said. Sell stops and active fund selling accelerated losses that dropped December and February by their maximum three cents per pound daily price limit, […] Read more
U.S. suspends some B.C. poultry imports over avian flu
Chicago | Reuters –– The U.S. has suspended imports of live and raw poultry from British Columbia due to an outbreak of bird flu virus in the province’s Fraser Valley, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief veterinary officer told Reuters on Monday. The restrictions began on Dec. 4, the same day Canada identified the virus […] Read more
CWB seeks partner with grain handling expertise, money
The grain firm formerly known as the Canadian Wheat Board wants it known the company’s looking for an industry partner, not a new owner — and not just any partner. Aiming to scotch what it calls “speculation and inaccuracies” in recent reports about its future and its plans for full commercialization, CWB laid out its […] Read more
U.S. distillers’ grain prices rise on domestic demand, China hopes
Chicago | Reuters — The price of corn-based distillers’ dried grain (DDG), a byproduct of ethanol refining, has jumped 25 per cent in the past month as demand rose from domestic livestock feed mixers as well as exporters on hopes China will return to the market after halting imports this summer, traders and analysts said […] Read more
Italian court orders new trial for bankers in Parmalat scandal
Parma | Reuters — Italy’s top appeals court on Friday threw out jail sentences against prominent bankers Cesare Geronzi and Matteo Arpe in a case related to the country’s biggest corporate scandal, the 2003 collapse of dairy group Parmalat. The Court of Cassation quashed the sentences handed down by a lower court in 2013 and […] Read more
Another Abbotsford poultry farm quarantined
A fifth poultry farm in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, this time a turkey farm near Abbotsford, is under federal quarantine with an H5 strain of avian influenza. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Saturday the Abbotsford farmer came forward after observing “higher than normal mortality rates,” and provided birds for sampling used in provincial and federal […] Read more
China looking to curb fertilizer, pesticide use
Beijing | Reuters — China, the world’s top producer of rice and wheat, is seeking to cap its use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that have helped to contaminate large swathes of its arable land and threaten its ability to keep up with domestic food demand. More than 19 per cent of soil samples taken […] Read more
More rain on the way for California, but drought may not be over
Sacramento | Reuters — This week’s California storms dumped up to 7.6 cm of rain on the parched state and more wet weather is on the way, but it is too soon to know whether there will be enough precipitation this winter to remedy three years of drought, forecasters said. Although the sun came out […] Read more