Insights and Stories on Livestock

Jul. 12, 2024 at 10:09 am CDT

Higher costs, especially for feed, are shrinking the average size of cattle herds in Alberta even though beef prices are strong. That’s among insights in the 2018-22 Beef Cost of Production study. It details a multi-year summary of the economic, productive and financial performance of Alberta cow-calf producers who participated […]

By Alexis Kienlen

May. 24, 2024 at 12:27 am CDT

In Western Canada, the land aches for water. Drought has plagued parts of the Prairies for years now. Water levels in rivers, lakes and producers’ dugouts have dropped. Grass in the summer looks the same as it does in the fall — brown, crunchy and dead. The concern lingers going […]

By Melissa Jeffers-Bezan

Apr. 12, 2024 at 9:48 am CDT

In 2001, foot-and-mouth disease decimated the U.K.’s beef industry. Millions of animals were culled after foot-and-mouth broke out in the country. According to the BBC, there were 2,000 cases of the disease, which resulted in entire farms having their animals slaughtered. Soldiers dug mass graves and piles of carcasses burned, […]

By Melissa Jeffers-Bezan

Apr. 5, 2024 at 10:31 am CDT

Companies avoiding the use of antibiotics use management strategies to eliminate the use of the medications rather than rely on alternative feed ingredients. On-farm protocols used by two “no antibiotics ever” pork brands in the United States include genetics, extended pre-weaning days and unconventional feed schedules. Jim Magolski, senior director […]

By Stew Slater

Mar. 27, 2024 at 2:56 pm CDT

The price of pasture land in Manitoba grew faster than anywhere else in the country last year, according to the latest farmland values report from Farm Credit Canada. The report, posted in mid-March, said Manitoba’s pasture land values had increased 19 per cent through 2023, compared to 12.7 per cent in Saskatchewan and 9.6 […]

By Don Norman