Insights and Stories of Dave Bedard

CCA, Sask. minister question traceability cost, timing

Jul. 14, 2009 at 12:17 am CDT

A pledge by most of Canada’s ag ministers last week for a mandatory, nationwide livestock traceability system by 2011 has left too much unanswered for Canada’s cattle producers or the Saskatchewan government to support. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association on Monday rolled out a statement of disappointment, saying not much else […]

Editors’ Picks: H1N1 crossover suspected in Argentina

Jul. 3, 2009 at 8:21 pm CDT

By Dave Bedard

Farm advocate, writer Paul Beingessner, 55

Jun. 26, 2009 at 3:13 pm CDT

By Dave Bedard

Editors’ Picks: Smithfield to stall on stall-free sows

Jun. 25, 2009 at 4:27 pm CDT

By Dave Bedard

Editors’ Picks: Monsanto, Dole team on veg breeding

Jun. 23, 2009 at 2:13 pm CDT

By Dave Bedard

Editors’ Picks: Views mixed on U.S. sow cull

Jun. 11, 2009 at 2:00 am CDT

A proposal by a U.S. hog producers’ group to pool funds for a voluntary cull of breeding sows is meeting with mixed reactions. U.S. hog farmers have begun facing losses over about the last year and a half, following almost three and a half years of profitability. A proposal unveiled […]

By Dave Bedard

New OIE standard on beef seen favouring Canada

Jun. 3, 2009 at 3:14 am CDT

Canada stands to gain from a reported World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) resolution that discards the 30-month age limit from the global body’s BSE-related safety standards for international beef trade. A report Saturday from Japan’s Kyodo news agency, via the Associated Press news service, said the OIE adopted the […]

By Dave Bedard

Editors’ Picks: Automaker offers goat with purchase

Jun. 3, 2009 at 12:33 am CDT

Mitsubishi Motors’ New Zealand operations plan to “support primary productivity” in that country by offering a free goat with every Triton utility vehicle it sells before August. “At MMNZ, we are aware that three years of drought (have) severely depleted sheep and beef populations, so what better time to ‘float […]

By Dave Bedard

Editors’ Picks: Study eyes “sustainable” hen housing

May. 26, 2009 at 2:49 pm CDT

A U.S. coalition of animal welfare researchers, non-government organizations and egg suppliers plans a major study of the “sustainability impacts” of different housing methods for laying hens. The research is to be led by Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of California at Davis (UC Davis). Fast food chain […]

By Dave Bedard

Editors’ Picks: Dairymen vie for Rotten’s favour

May. 19, 2009 at 3:27 pm CDT

Seeing a star butter pitchman on the rise, dairy producers from New Zealand are looking for a nod from British 1970s punk-rock icon John Lydon, more famously known as Johnny Rotten. Lydon, the 53-year-old vocalist for the Sex Pistols, has since last year appeared in a series of TV and […]

By Dave Bedard