News Archive

Hog producers are looking at ways of meeting new animal care requirements as they come into effect

Manitoba Pork is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at The Fairmont Winnipeg. The AGM is open to everyone, and we encourage producers and industry partners to come and hear what Manitoba Pork has been up to over the past year and listen to speakers on a variety of important topics.

To...

Manitoba Pork will be hosting a PEDv Town Hall conference call on Friday, March 21.

To participate in the call, phone:

1-877-229-8493 and enter PIN: 112412

Topics will include: PEDv surveillance at high pig-traffic areas in Manitoba and the positive set of environmental samples found. Biocontainment efforts at the one infected pig farm in...

Since the beginning of February, the provincial department of agriculture has been conducting surveillance for Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) at high pig-traffic facilities, including assembly yards, federal packing plants and provincial abattoirs. The program uses environmental samples to detect exposure to the PED virus. Two sets of samples that...

The general manager of Manitoba Pork Council warns, if the United States wants world trade to work properly, it needs to realise that all of the participants including themselves have to abide by a certain set of rule, writes Bruce Cochrane

Canada's hog farmer group hopes a new pledge by eight major grocers to source pork from stall-free operations by the end of 2022 will include more than just moral support for farms to make such changes.
Grocer members of the Retail Council of Canada (RCC) jointly announced Monday they will "work towards...

Board to consider non-binding March resolution from membership

ANALYSIS - Diseases continue to challenge the world's pig producers. In the US, PRRS continues to be problematical, while foot and mouth disease rumbles on in Russia and there has been the first report of African Swine Fever outbreaks in domestic pigs there since December. Preventative measures have helped Canadian pork...

The vice chair of Manitoba Pork Council warns the economic pressures that have prompted the provinces pork producers to reduce production threatens the supply of hogs available for Manitoba's pork processing plants, writes Bruce Cochrane.

Having reviewed its pork suppliers' plans to phase out the use of gestation stalls for breeding sows, Canada's iconic Tim Hortons chain now expects to have moved to stall-free pork by the year 2022.
In the Oakville, Ont. company's annual Sustainability and Responsibility report, released Wednesday, Tim Hortons said it has "consulted...

Quebec meat packer Olymel plans to bring itself in line with the "new requirements of the market" and phase out the use of gestation crates in its hog production business.
St-Hyacinthe-based Olymel, the pork, chicken and turkey processing arm of agrifood co-operative La Coop federee -- and the owner, since January, of...

Earlier this month, the USDA proposed a number of changes to COOL regulations that would require labelling of muscle cuts to include the origin designations about where each of the production steps (born, raised, slaughtered) occurred. Where the current COOL regulations would allow "Product of the U.S." labels only on cuts...

Grain sales and movement across Western Canada have gone smoothly in the first year after the region's grain-marketing monopoly ended, Cargill Ltd. president Len Penner said Wednesday.
The Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly expired on Aug. 1, allowing farmers to sell their grain to any buyer for the first time in 69 years.
Cargill,...

A Russian watchdog may impose a temporary ban on some U.S. and Canadian beef and pork products from Feb. 4 because it says some of them contain ractopamine.
Russia’s Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service, Rosselkhoznadzor, said both countries were still delivering meat to Russia which did not comply with a requirement by...

A Japanese trading firm aiming to sell Canadian pork into Asian markets has bought a third of a major Manitoba producer and packer.
Itochu Corp. on Tuesday said it has paid about five billion yen (C$56.6 million) for a 33.4 per cent share of HyLife Group, based at La Broquerie, Man.
The deal,...

Quebec meat packing giant Olymel will buy one of Canada's largest hog farms out of receivership, after no superior bids emerged.
Olymel will pay $65.25 million for Big Sky Farms, based at Humboldt, Sask., in a deal that will likely close by the end of January, said the receiver, Ernst and Young...

U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) rules have directly cost Canada's hog and pork industry more than $2 billion, according to a report that could help determine retaliation against U.S. exports if Washington does not change its requirements.
The U.S. must bring the labeling rules into compliance with a World Trade Organization ruling by...

Last week we attended the Banff Pork Seminar held in Banff Alberta, writes Jim Long.

Three of the largest Hog Operations in Canada (Western Canada) have had major changes in ownership in the last few weeks, writes Jim Long.

Montana pork producers are taking a wait-and-see approach in regard to a new pork-processing plant at Shelby that could draw large numbers of Canadian hogs.
Governor Brian Schweitzer announced in February that Chinese investors were interested in developing a facility capable of processing 800,000 pigs. But additional details are scarce.
"At this point...

Jacques Gourde, Member of Parliament for Lotbinière-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, and Pierre Corbeil, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, announced the allocation of $500,000 to the Fédération des producteurs de porcs du Québec (FPPQ) to implement a major project for controlling the virus responsible for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), which is affecting...

Delegates attending the 2012 Banff Pork Seminar will notice a host of changes as the annual event moves to a new conference facility on the Banff Centre Campus. The 41st Banff Pork Seminar will run from 17 - 21 January with an opening reception set for Tuesday, 16 January.

Conference Chair...

Farmers in provinces where the AgriStability program is delivered federally now have an extra year to pay back any program overpayments without interest charges.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced Monday that the interest-free period for overpayments under AgriStability and its predecessor, the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) program, will now run until...

The federal bill to shut down the Canadian Wheat Board's single marketing desk for Prairie wheat and barley has gone to Canada's chamber of sober second thought.
The House of Commons, in an expected 153-120 split along party lines, passed Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz's Bill C-18 through third reading on Monday evening,...

The Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians is confident 2012 targets set for Quebec for the delivery of a national biosecurity training programme for swine producers will be easily met, writes Bruce Cochrane.