Manitoba Pork AGM
Manitoba Porks virtual AGM is scheduled for Wednesday April 14th. For details or to register contact Manitoba Pork. •
Cramer Ag Expo Cancelled
Due to the Covid 19 situation and uncertainties with the virus, and current SASK Health protocols we have had to cancel the previously postponed Cramer Expo.
We look forward to 2022, with a rebranded show – Saskatchewan Livestock Expo. Mark your calendar now for February 17, 2022.
For more information please contact Kelly Turcotte trade show co ordinator at 306. 737.6262 or email
kelly_turcotte@hotmail.com. •
ANCC Conference
The 2021 Animal Nutrition Conference of Canada will take place virtually May 10 – 14. The event features cutting edge science, networking opportunities and more.
Delivered within a new interactive platform, the conference will provide unique opportunities for all participants to learn, share and network in a dynamic digital environment that closely mirrors the traditional in-person event. To accommodate all participants, simultaneous presentations will be offered in English and French.
Complete program details and registration information are available on the ANCC Website animalnutritionconference.ca/. Or Follow at #ancc2021. •
Alberta Pork Congress Cancelled
Due to the Covid 19 situation and uncertainties with the virus, and current Alberta restrictions the Board of Directors has cancelled the 2021 Alberta Pork Congress.
Save the date for 2022 June 15 & 16, 2022, check the Alberta Pork Congress website albertaporkcongress.com for updates. Contact Kate Kelly at ConventionALL Management for more details and information. PH: 403.244.7821
E: kate@albertaporkcongress.com •
World Pork Expo Gets Green Light
Full plans are underway to have World Pork Expo in Des Moines Iowa, June 9 – 11, 2021. The organizers will continue to monitor developments in COVID 19 guidelines (local, state, federal) to ensure the health and safety of attendees and exhibitors.
Check their Website for details worldpork.org •
Alberta Livestock Expo
Inital plans are underway for the Alberta Livestock Expo to take place in Lethbridge October 6 & 7, 2021.
Registration will open April 19th. Expanded floor space, hot lunch buffet on Thursday plus returning Pork Quality Competition.
Should the show not be able to proceed due to restrictions because of COVID 19, all exhibition and sponsor fees will be refunded.
For details or more information please contact Kaite at 431.337.8726 or
E: katie@albertalivestockexpo.com or
W: albertalivestockexpo.com •
Red Deer Swine Technology Workshop
Mark your calendars for the annual Red Deer Swine Technology Workshop, which is scheduled for Wednesday October 20, 2021. More details will be available in future issues. •
Saskatchewan Pork Symposium
The date has been selected for Saskatchewan Industry Pork Symposium at the Saskatoon Inn November 16 & 17, 2021. More details to come. •
Brandon Hog & Livestock Expo
The Brandon Hog & Livestock Expo will take place, if Provincial restrictions allow, Wednesday December 8, 2021.
More details to come in future editions. •
Banff Pork Seminar
We all truly hope we can be back in person at the Castle in the Rockies for the next Banff Pork Seminar, scheduled for January 11 – 13, 2022. •
African Swine Fever still breaking out in China
China has had three more outbreaks of African Swine Fever this month, two years after the virus was responsible for wiping out half of the nation’s hogs.
China’s agriculture ministry confirmed outbreaks in the southwestern province of Sichuan, and the city of Xiangyang in the central province of Hubei.
The virus killed 38 pigs on a farm of 127 hogs in Sichuan, China’s largest hog-producing province. In Hubei, the disease was detected on a truck of piglets being transported illegally from another province. Of 165 piglets, 10 were infected, and five had died.
China also reported an outbreak earlier this month in the southwestern province of Yunnan. •
— By Jim Romahn
Survey Aims to Find Pig Owners
The Prairie Swine Centre is launching a survey of Canadians who own one or a few pigs so it can know who to alert if there is an outbreak of African Swine Fever.
The project builds on information in other countries, such as Europe, where backyard pigs pose a threat to pick up African Swine Fever and spread it into the commercial hog-farming sector.
Dr. Murray Pettitt, chief executive officer of the Prairie Swine Centre, is heading the project which aims to get survey results from at least 350 of the estimated 7,000 Canadians who own one or just a few pigs.
The survey aims to find out why they own pigs, what they feed, what they know about contagious swine diseases such as African Swine Fever and what biosecurity measures they practice.
It should give swine specialists a better idea about how to communicate with these pig owners about contagious swine diseases.
“It’s probably a safe assumption that in a lot of cases these motivators will be different than the commercial industry and we need to take that into account in designing effective messaging,” Pettitt said during an on online seminar about African Swine Fever (ASF) organized by Swine Innovation Porc.
“What we’re really looking for here is a good thorough understanding of what motivates them, why they have pigs, what’s important to them, what would they give up if they were to lose their pigs due to ASF or any other swine disease coming through Canada and based on that, can we and how do we design appropriate communication measures?” Pettitt said.
There is $75 for survey participants and a chance to win one of three iPads. •
— By Jim Romahn
Bibeau Challenges Provinces on AgriStability
Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau is challenging provinces to move on her offer to enhance AgriStability with an offer of $170 million in increased funding.
She and Jim Carr, appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to speak for the Prairie provinces said “we are asking for a clear indication from the three Prairie provinces whether they will sign on or not.”
They asked the Prairie agriculture ministers whether they have taken the proposal Bibeau made in November to their premiers.
Those changes, the MPs said, “could lead to an increased payout from AgriStability of 50 per cent, or $170 million nationally, into the pockets of farmers who need it the most.”
The 2022 signup deadline for 2022 is April 30. The federal government’s fiscal year ends March 31 which might have a role in Bibeau’s comment that her offer could be retroactive if provinces act promptly.
She rejected calls by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the Canadian Pork Council and the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association to hold another federal-provincial-territorial meeting of agriculture ministers to get the deal done. •
— By Jim Romahn
New Lobbying Coalitions on Carbon Tax
Two groups have been formed by farmers to lobby over the federal government’s carbon tax.
The Agriculture Carbon Alliance (ACA) is supported by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Canadian Canola Growers Association, Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Canadian Hatching Egg Producers, Canadian Horticultural Council, Canadian Pork Council, Chicken Farmers of Canada, Egg Farmers of Canada, Grain Growers of Canada, and Turkey Farmers of Canada.
Dave Carey, co-chair of the Agriculture Carbon Alliance (ACA), said it represents 200,000 farmers.
Farmers for Climate Solution (FCS) claims to represent more than 20,000 Canadian farmers and is asking the federal government for $300 million to create six national programs to help farmers adopt practices that reduce carbon emissions.
The ACA coalition said it “will work proactively on behalf of Canadian agriculture to advocate for constructive and evidence-based policies regarding carbon pricing, offsets, retrofit funding, and related environmental policies.”
The FCS said its request includes $10 million for pilot programs to transition on-farm energy beyond diesel to clean energy.
The FCS members include Canadian Organic Growers, Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network, BC Farmers’ Markets, Cooperative our l’Agriculture de Proximite Ecologique, Canadian Forage and Grassland Association, Ecology Action Centre, Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario, equiterre, Farm Folk City Folk, Manitoba Organic Alliance, National Farmers Union (national and Ontario), Organic Council of Ontario, Ontario Sheep Farmers, Regeneration Canada, Rural Routes to Climate Solutions, Saskatchewan Organics, Seed Change, Young Agrarians and a number of partners and supporters such as the Ivey and Metcalf Foundations, the Prairie Climate Centre and Vancity.
Agriculture economist Al Mussell, in his most recent analytical report, said the federal government seems to treat agriculture are a carbon culprit and doesn’t recognize its potential to provide solutions.•
— By Jim Romahn
Pig Research Advances Human Virus Research
The Pirbright Institute in England has found that monoclonal antibodies developed in pigs can be used in research to develop human anti-virus vaccines.
The research team said it has generated the first pig antibodies against swine influenza (flu) that protect against infection and recognize the same parts of the flu virus as human antibodies.
This indicates they could be used to develop and assess human antibody therapies and their delivery methods, a release from the group said.
These antibodies also have the potential to improve how flu virus evolution is monitored and inform decisions about annual flu vaccine selection.
Pirbright scientists worked in collaboration with the University of Oxford, The Francis Crick Institute and to generate pig antibodies in the laboratory (known as monoclonal antibodies, or mAbs). These are the first pig mAbs to be generated which target the influenza virus, the release said.
These mAbs recognize the same two main sites of the flu virus haemagglutinin protein that are targeted by human antibodies and were found to be just as effective at neutralising the swine flu strain that caused the 2009 pandemic, it said.
The scientists then treated pigs with one of the mAbs prior to infection and they were protected from severe disease. The flu virus was also eliminated from their lungs. This indicates that the mAbs have great therapeutic potential and could be used to evaluate mAb delivery methods.
The findings in the study, , demonstrate that pig mAbs are more closely matched to human antibodies and could therefore improve the reliability of human vaccine selection, the release said.
Ferrets are commonly used as models to monitor flu virus evolution and to design or select vaccines that will provide the best protection against human seasonal flu strains. However, ferret antibodies only recognize one of the two main haemagglutinin sites that human antibodies target. •
— By Jim Romahn
System Analysis – Precision Nutrition and Modelling
Canada is known as a producer of high quality pork, both at home and abroad. In keeping with their reputation, Canadian pork producers prioritize the treatment and health of pigs used for pork production.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) scientist Dr. Candido Pomar has dedicated his life’s work creating the best solutions that impact animal well-being. “Pigs that are treated right make the best pork,” explains Dr. Pomar. “Farmers have to balance how effective the pigs’ food is with keeping them happy and healthy.
“But the right balance is hard to find. Too little nutrients, and pigs don’t gain weight efficiently; too much, and they excrete more nutrients than they should. If the pigs excrete too much, it can have a negative impact on the environment.”
An AAFC research team, led by Dr. Pomar at the Sherbrooke Research and Development Centre, has found that healthy weight gain can be controlled by giving each pig its own unique diet that meets their specific nutrient needs. They have developed a new feeding process to support this finding.
“The process is called precision feeding, and it is one of the most promising ways to promote high quality pork that does not sacrifice the pigs’ well-being,” describes Dr. Pomar.
Precision feeding involves giving each pig a unique ear tag that links to a computer. When meals are given, the pigs approach the feeding stations, which identifies their ear tag. The computer recognizes that specific pig and gives a personalized amount of food, pre-planned just for them, to meet their nutritional needs.
Not only do the computers keep track of every pig’s special diet, but they are also used to prevent diseases.
“The computers also record whether the pigs eat all their food,” Dr. Pomar explains. “This helps farmers identify early disease symptoms in individual pigs, without treating the whole group.”
With precision feeding, farmers are able to raise their pigs in a way that encourages well-being, is more beneficial to the environment and produces top-quality pork. The principles of precision feeding developed in Dr. Pomar’s laboratory are used by many leading livestock companies. Negotiations are underway to enter a collaborative agreement to commercialise the automated livestock system in the near future. •
Inter-provincial Meat Trade Lobby
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture and counterparts in Alberta, Quebec and Manitoba are lobbying to gain permission for provincially-inspected meat-packing plants to ship to other provinces and territories.
The law now limits inter-provincial trade to plants licenced by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency whose standards and associated compliance costs are higher than for provincially-inspected facilities.
The United States is pondering a similar move. The lobby gained strength because of the COVID-19 pandemic which distrupted the supply chains.
JBS USA and Cargill account for 70 per cent of Canada’s beef slaughter and pork packing is concentrated in one or two companies in most provinces. •
— By Jim Romahn
Global Food Waste Study Ranks Canada Poorly
A new report from the United Nations estimates that 17 per cent of the food produced globally each year is wasted. That amounts to 931 million tonnes.
The waste is far more than previous reports had indicated, though direct comparisons are difficult because of differing methodologies and the lack of strong data from many countries, the report said.
Canada was among 17 countries deemed to have high-quality data.
The report found that the average Canadian wastes 79 kilograms of food a year at home, more than the average American at 59 kg and similar to the amount wasted by the average person in the United Kingdom at 77 kg.
“Improved measurement can lead to improved management,” said Brian Roe, a food waste researcher at Ohio State University who was not involved in the report.
In November, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced a $20-million food waste reduction challenge and invited Canadians to submit proposals.
In mid-February she said 343 applications were submitted for the first of two sections of the challenge. The second will open to applications this spring.
She also said Canada is committed to the United Nation’s goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030.
She estimated Canada wastes about half of the food produced and put that loss at $49.5 billion. •
— By Jim Romahn
U.S. Continues to Flog a Dead Horse – COOL
During Senate confirmation hearings in early February, Tom Vilsack, the former Ag Secretary who is President Biden’s nominee to return as Ag Secretary, said he is willing to consider reimplementation of country-of-origin labeling (COOL) regulations for meat products.
Addressing a question from Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer about whether he believes the current labeling policy adequately informed consumers, Vilsack said, “If it’s the same policy as it was four years ago when I left, the answer is no.”
As Ag Secretary under President Obama, Vilsack said, “We made every concerted effort to try to create better transparency and better information for consumers, because we understand that consumers want to know where their food comes from.”
Vilsack said the Obama Administration attempted on three occasions to strengthen COOL but was unsuccessful because of Canadian challenges to the law through the World Trade Organization (WTO). In December 2015, Congress repealed the COOL law for beef and pork because of a series of WTO rulings that prohibited labels based on country of origin on some products. •
— By Jim Romahn
Canada Encourages Farmers to Adopt Climate-smart Practices
The best way to build climate resiliency across Canadian agriculture’s diversity of realities and landscapes is by developing and deploying solutions that are tailored for each region, led by farmers and farm groups themselves.
The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced an investment of $185 million over the next 10 years for the new Agricultural Climate Solutions (ASC) program.
The ACS program aims to establish a strong, Canada-wide network of regional collaborations led by farmers and including scientists and other sectoral stakeholders. Together, they will develop and share management practices that best store carbon and mitigate climate change. This work will also help protect biodiversity, improve water and soil quality, and strengthen farmers’ bottom lines.
“Our government is working in partnership with farmers to develop and deploy the best practices that will fight climate change, protect our lands and waters, and deliver important economic benefits to farmers. With significant regional collaborations from coast-to-coast, Agricultural Climate Solutions puts farmers at the helm of steering Canadian agriculture towards a climate resilient future for the generations to come,” Minister Bibeau said.
To be eligible for the ACS program, applicants must form a large network of partnerships within a province, including with agricultural non-profits, Indigenous organizations and environmental groups.
The program will proceed in two phases. The first phase, which will launch 1 April, aims to support the development of proposals focused on regional collaboration hubs, also known as “Living Labs”, by offering grants of up to $100,000.
The aim is for every province in Canada to have at least one collaboration hub. Each hub will centre on farms, where farmers and researchers can co-develop best practices, including cover crops, intercropping, conversion of marginal land to permanent cover, shelterbelts, nutrient management, and inclusion of pulses in rotations. Applicants will need to demonstrate their ability to engage with researchers and develop plans for knowledge transfer and adoption among their peers. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada will host regional information sessions over the coming weeks. •
— Source The Pig Site
National Farm Animal Care Council Code Update
An exercise to align existing on-farm codes with the new health of animals regulations.
Between 2009 and 2018 twelve on-farm Codes of Practice have been updated or developed. Each Code contains a transportation chapter that addresses pre-transportation considerations like fitness for transport, arranging transport, loading, and receiving. The transportation chapters of all Codes relied on the federal animal transport regulatory framework that was in place at the time of their release. However, a complete amendment to Part XII (Transport of Animals) of the Health of Animals Regulations (HAR) took effect in February 2020 resulting in discrepancies between many on-farm Codes and the updated regulations.
NFACC’s board made the decision that the transportation chapters of the on-farm Codes needed to align with the new HAR. To conduct this exercise in an expeditious and consistent manner it was agreed that the transportation Code team (i.e., Code Managers) should take the lead in proposing edits that would be limited to aligning the on-farm Codes with the new regulations (i.e., no new content would be included and only areas of discrepancy would be addressed).
The proposed alignment edits were taken to the Humane Transport team with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to confirm that all proposed edits do indeed align with the new regulations. Subsequently the proposed edits went to each industry lead organization for review and acceptance. The final step was NFACC Board approval. It was reiterated to all parties that alignment edits would only be implemented as required to meet the new regulations.
The exercise has been more involved that envisioned as even minor alignment edits have impacted glossaries, footnotes, cited references, hyperlinks, appendices, and layout. However, the transportation Code team is now in the final stages of preparing updated transportation chapters for all affected Codes. An announcement will be made when the updates are available from NFACC’s website. •
Canada’s Ag Day
February 23rd marked the fifth annual Canada’s Agriculture Day and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, joined farmers, ranchers, food processors, sector leaders and youth to raise a fork to the food we love and the people who produce it.
This year’s celebration focused on strengthening the relationship between consumers and producers who share a common love and appreciation for home-grown food, under the theme “Forks Up For Canadian Agriculture.”
The agricultural sector makes significant contributions to the Canadian economy and provides one in eight jobs in Canada. From January to December 2020, Canadian agri-food and seafood exports increased by 10.4%, reaching nearly $74 billion compared to $67 billion for the same period last year. Agri-food exports alone increased by 13.4% during this period compared to 2019.
Canada’s farmers and food processors have also been instrumental in supporting their communities and helping those in need by donating huge quantities of locally produced meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables to food banks and food rescue organizations across the country Through the pandemic, the Government of Canada has been actively supporting farmers and food businesses with programs that are helping them keep their businesses strong, sustainable and growing. Emergency measures during the pandemic have included the Canada Emergency Business Account and over $200 million for emergency safety programs that are helping farmers and food processors keep their businesses running and their workers safe.
“Today, let’s celebrate our local producers and all those who work hard to keep our grocery stores stocked with quality Canadian food. Farmers and all food sector workers in Canada have succeeded despite the many challenges posed by COVID-19. Just as we commend the healthcare workers for their heroic efforts, I encourage everyone to show their support and appreciation for our local producers as well. Our farmers care deeply about their land and their animals and are very proud of what they do. Agriculture creates millions of jobs in Canada and is a powerful driver of the economy and a vital part of our rural communities. Agriculture provides dynamic and rewarding careers for our young people, including jobs in science and other technologically advanced fields. On Canada’s Agriculture Day, we say THANK YOU!”
The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food •
ASF Rocks Indonesia
A resurgence of African swine fever has claimed tens of thousands of pigs on Indonesia’s southern East Nusa Tenggara region.
It seemed to be gone by late last year but has flared up again. The death toll could me much greater than official estimates because authorities said many farmers are not reporting outbreaks.
Farmer on the island of Flores have lost about 40 per cent of their pigs with 35,000 deaths reported since February of 2020. •
— By Jim Romahn
