Saskatchewan Livestock Expo
Saskatchewan Livestock Expo, is sold out and will take place Thursday May 12th at Kinetic Exhibition Park in Swift Current, SK from 8:30am – 5pm.
For a sneak peek at floor plan and attending exhibitors check
www.cramereventmanagement.com
New this year hog roast lunch, contact Lisa for tickets and information.
Contact Doug Cramer at 306.520.3553 for details on and about the Cramer Cup series. Catergories include pork quality, egg quality and baking.
Should the show be cancelled due to COVID 19 full refunds will be given to exhibitors and sponsors.
For details or information contact expo manger Lisa Doyle of Vibrant Even Management at 403.305.1563 or
E: lisa@vibranteventmanagement.ca •
ANCC 22
The 2022 Animal Nutrition Conference of Canada will take place in Saskatoon May 10th -12th.
This will be the 6th annual ANCC conference, hosted by Animal Nutrition Association of Canada ANAC. Teh event will be offered as a hybird format.
For details and registration check thier website www.anacan.org/education-and-events/annual-conference •
World Pork Expo
World Pork Expo in Des Moines Iowa will take place June 8th – 10th, 2022.
Presented by National Pork Producers Council. Check their Website for details and information worldpork.org •
Alberta Pork Congress
After a two year hiatus Alberta Pork Congress is looking forward to again take place in June of this year. Join us in Red Deer at Westerner Park June 15th and 16th.
As of press time the show is 90% sold out, don’t delay book your booth today.
The show will proceed while adhering to provincial, local and venue guidelines, following all current restrictions. All attendees health and safety are top priority.
Their will be no awards banquet this year. Information on other social events will be shared as confirmed.
Please stay tuned to future issues of Prairie Hog Country for more details.
Check the Alberta Pork Congress website albertaporkcongress.com for most updated information &details on booth registration.
Should the show have to be cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic there will be full refunds for booths and sponsorships.
Please contact Kate Kelly, email her at kate@albertaporkcongress.com or call 403.542.7906 . •
Alberta Livestock Expo
Inital plans are underway for the Alberta Livestock Expo to take place in Lethbridge October 5th & 6th, 2022.
Registration will open in April. 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 Katie at 431.337.8726 or
E: katie@albertalivestockexpo.com or
W: albertalivestockexpo.com •
RDSTW
Mark your calendars for Red Deer Swine Technology Workshop, which will take place Wednesday October 19th at the Capri in Red Deer.
More details will be available in the months and issues to come.•
Saskatchewan Pork Symposium
If marking your calendars another date to pencil in is for Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium. The 2 day event is planned for November 15th & 16th. More details will be available in the months and issues to come. •
Prairie Livestock Expo
The committee will be starting to plan for the Prairie Livestock Expo to take place in Winnipeg. Mark the the date on your calendars December 7th, 2022. •
Ukrainian Pig Sector Needs Help
The Ukrainian pig industry has issued a plea for urgent aid in the form of pig feed and veterinary products, as producers face an ‘enormous crisis’ as a result of the war.
The Association of Ukrainian pig breeders has contacted the National Pig Association (NPA) and other pig industry bodies around the world to request humanitarian assistance for the pig sector’s 1,400 producers.
“The war, started by Russia has caused a crisis of enormous scale that threatens the food security, particularly the animal protein supply,” states release from AUPB.
“The industry is currently under extreme circumstances that are far from routine: vast areas are in close proximity to war zones, numerous pig producers cannot sell pigs to be slaughtered, some of them are isolated by occupiers and have no choice but to euthanize the animals.
“Traditional supply chains are broken: access to certain feed ingredients and veterinary products is limited due to problems with logistics as well as lack of revolving funds in sending collecting and shipping to Ukraine of any amount of products listed.”
Premixes for various technological groups that are mostly imported. In addition to that, some veterinary products, tools and consumables are of immense necessity.
The message to the global pork sector lists certain feed ingredients and veterinary products needed to maintain the country’s 3.6 million-strong pig herd.
On behalf of Ukrainian pig farmers, the Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders is addressing the global swine community requesting humanitarian help to supply our farmers with certain input materials necessary for maintaining production during the critical period of the next several months.
Alberta Hog farmers Donate $10,000 to Ukraine
The current humanitarian crisis in Ukraine has deeply touched everyone. As we all look for an end to this meaningless conflict, the violence and population displacement has created a tremendous need for international support.
In solidarity with those affected by the situation, Alberta Pork’s board of directors has chosen to make a $10,000 financial contribution to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, in support of efforts to keep Ukrainians safe.
“Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the tragedy in Ukraine,” said Brent Moen, Chair, Alberta Pork. “Peace must prevail to encourage stability and the spirit of cooperation between neighbours.”
Alberta and Ukraine have many connections culturally. Waves of Ukrainian immigrants arrived in Alberta starting in the late 19th century, and many of those immigrants established homesteads to continuing producing the crops and livestock they were familiar with in Ukraine. Today, Ukrainian-Canadian farmers continue to proudly produce food for Canadians and the world.
Ending the humanitarian crisis continues to be the priority, but additional challenges have also been created within the international agri-food industry. Russia’s attack on Ukraine will cost producers when it comes to grain, fuel and fertilizer. Disruptions to production and exports will restrict supply and increase prices in these markets, which will impact all farmers and worsen food price inflation and availability for consumers globally. •
Wild Pigs Investment From RDAR
Recently announced, RDAR (Results Driven Agriculture Research) has invested $432,000 in a transdisciplinary research project to study Invasive wild pigs and the potential spread of infectious diseases across Alberta. The expansive research team, led by University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine professor Dr. Matthieu Pruvot, includes researchers from Alberta Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Economic Development (AFRED), the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and industry partners from Alberta Pork and Alberta Beef Producers.
Alberta Pork selected this project as their top research priority and will focus on three main objectives:
1) Use wild pig monitoring data to understand wild pig distributions, population dynamics and spread across Alberta, and the potential of wild pigs to facilitate disease spread between previously isolated epidemiological systems.
2) Characterize intra and inter-species contact structure between wild pigs and livestock (beef cattle and domestic pigs) through wildlife monitoring and engagement with producers.
3) Increase surveillance in wild pigs to better understand pathogen transmission among wild pigs and between wild pigs and livestock.
RDAR will fund $432,000 of the total project cost of $973,240. RDAR funds will be drawn from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) and AFRED.
Wild pigs are an invasive species in Alberta and an agricultural pest when at large. Under the Agricultural Pests Act, landowners must control or destroy pests and prevent them from becoming established on their land. •
CAAIN Invites Meat-packer Entries for $5 Million
The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) is offering $5 million to 16 successful applicants from the Canadian meat-packing industry.
Applications are now open; decisions will be announced in the fall.
CAAIN is a non-profit organization based in Edmonton that started in 2019 with $49 million from the federal and Alberta governments.
The applications must include at least two small or medium-sized plants; Statistics Canada’s definition of fewer than 499 employees will apply.
The money is intended to stimulate interest and investment in automation at meat-packing plants.
The Canadian Meat Council has been lobbying hard for several years to convince the federal government to allow meat-packers to employ more temporary foreign workers to fill vacant positions. •
— By Jim Romahn
CP Rail to Resume Operations After Arbitration Agreement
“CP is pleased to have reached agreement with the TCRC negotiating committee to enter into binding arbitration and end this work stoppage,” said CP president and chief executive officer Keith Creel. “This agreement enables us to return to work effective noon Tuesday (March 22) local time to resume our essential services for our customers and the North American supply chain.” CP thanked Canadian Federal Conciliation and Mediation Services for its work during the negotiation.
The company will immediately begin working with customers to resume normal train operations across Canada as soon as possible. TCRC represents approximately 3,000 locomotive engineers, conductors, train and yard workers across Canada. •
Government Invests in Biosecurity Technology
Disease outbreak threatens the ability for farmers to maintain their operations, however, innovation is revolutionizing modern agriculture and is playing a key role in addressing agricultural challenges. Recently, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced an investment of up to $113,575 for Be Seen Be Safe Ltd. to determine and promote an innovative technology system to help protect the livestock industry in the event of disease outbreak.
Building on its existing farm health technology platform, Be Seen Be Safe Ltd. is using the funds to research, test and develop the best hardware solution that will allow real-time tracking and tracing of trailers. After the trials are complete, the company will publish and widely distribute recommendations on the best-fit technology along with information on deployment. By using data to monitor the movement of these vehicles, farmers can rapidly contain an outbreak, limit losses and reduce the time it takes to return to normal business.
“Agricultural producers care about the health of their animals. This investment in Be Seen Be Safe Ltd. supports the development of a data analysis tool that will help contain potential outbreaks to stop the spread of disease. This type of innovation means producers can better protect their animals and their business and continue delivering high-quality food to Canadians and consumers around the world.” stated the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau.
Disease outbreak can have major impacts on animal welfare, food supply, productivity and producer mental health, and can result in significant economic losses. That is why the Government of Canada is supporting the development of biosecurity technologies that can help farmers manage this risk.
The Government of Canada is committed to supporting the innovations of small businesses as they develop solutions to ensure Canada’s agricultural sector can adapt and remain competitive. Be Seen Be Safe Ltd.’s innovative product will help the livestock industry improve its resiliency and allow producers to react quickly and limit impacts if disaster strikes. •
Merck Animal Health and ISU Announce New Four-Year Strategic Alliance to Drive Innovative
Solutions in Animal Health
Merck Animal Health announced back in February, known as MSD Animal Health outside the United States and Canada, a division of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA (NYSE:MRK), in collaboration with Iowa State University, recently announced a four-year strategic alliance that will bring together industry and university talent as part of a unique public-private partnership to address complex needs and expedite the delivery of animal health solutions to the marketplace.
The alliance will join faculty, students and Merck Animal Health veterinarians and staff with a committed pool of resources to identify research and development opportunities and seamlessly deploy on technical efforts and projects across disciplines for companion, equine and livestock animals. The alliance will be led by a joint steering committee of members from Merck Animal Health and Iowa State to ensure goals and objectives are aligned and progress is tracked. •
Supporting Canadian Consumers and Canada’s Food Producers
Canada’s Food Facts for Consumers (C3FC) asked parliamentarians of all political stripes to band together and better support Canadian consumers and food producers on February 22nd, Canada’s Agriculture Day.
C3FC has requested that members of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food study how various federal granting programs and funding vehicles can be streamlined, optimized, and focused to grow Canada’s economy and support consumers to buy Canadian.
C3FC is requesting that committee members study how existing federal funds could be better used to:
ensure Canadians know Canadian food is world-class, nutritious, sustainable, and delicious
help address consumers’ mounting food affordability concerns
encourage household decision-makers to ‘buy Canadian’ to support our producers and grow our economy as we emerge from the pandemic
reduce the carbon footprint of the food we eat
promote Canadian food in international markets in which Canada has free trade agreements
Canada’s agri-food and agriculture sector employs more than 2 million people, representing one of every nine jobs in Canada. It also accounted for 7.4% of Canada’s total economic output in 2020, the latest year for which figures are available. •
National Workforce Strategic Plan
Worsening labour shortages are an urgent issue for farm and food processing employers. Today, tens of thousands of jobs are unfilled, resulting in economic losses and missed opportunities. These shortages have reached a crisis for the agriculture and food and beverage manufacturing sectors and urgent action to address workforce challenges is needed.
Simply put – doing more of the same will not address the issues – real change in thinking and action are required.
The Canadian Agricultural HR Council (CAHRC) is partnering with the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) and Food and Beverage Canada (FBC) to develop and implement a National Workforce Strategic Plan for Agriculture and Food and Beverage Manufacturing. The Strategic Plan will be developed in partnership with other organizations who play workforce development roles today in both sectors. The Strategic Plan is envisioned to be an actionable roadmap leading to a sustainable and skilled workforce. Through the development and implementation of the Strategic Plan, industry will confirm priority action items, and then work collaboratively to address both immediate labour gaps, and systemic issues faced by the sector.
A draft strategic plan has been developed. The strategy includes 5 high level goals and underlying objectives. To develop the strategy, initial work was completed to identify organizations and initiatives in play in each area now, potential gaps, additional actions that could be undertaken and key performance indicators.
There will be a webinar to discuss this plan on Friday April 8th wint interested and affected parties.
Cargill, Maple Leaf Foods Win Welfare Praise
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. and Cargill are two companies doing business in Canada that have been recognized for improving animal welfare.
Two animal rights organizations formed the Business Benchmark for on Farm Animal Welfare to measure corporate practices. Only four were judged good enough to win “leadership” designation; 12, including Maple Leaf and Cargill, have made “animal welfare an integral part of business strategy”
The two animal rights groups are Compassion for World Farming and Four PAWS.
In the Benchmark report they write:
“We want to end factory farming and change the food system in a sustainable way through three important strategic interventions.
“First, we want to see a significant reduction in the number of animals farmed for food – aiming for at least a 50 per cent reduction by 2040 globally.
Second, we want to make sure that animals who (sic) are still farmed for food experience positive welfare states.
Third, we strive to replace animal-based products with plant-based alternatives.
The four leading companies picked by Benchmark are all in England. They are Marks and Spencer, Noble Foods, Premier Foods and Waitrose. •
— By Jim Romahn
Continued Stability in Canadian Pig Herd
Figures published by Statistics Canada, place the national herd at 14.11m head on 1 January, annual growth of 0.6%. The breeding sow herd showed even more modest growth at only 0.3%, to 1.24m head.
The number of sows farrowed between July and December 2021 was 1.25m, 1% down on the same period in 2020. The number of pigs born was 16.86m, slightly down on the same period a year earlier. Production in 2022 is likely to be stable compared with 2021, and indeed this is what the USDA is forecasting, at 2.15 million tonnes. •
Drought is Worst in Hundreds of Years
Droughts in the Western United States and the Canadian Prairies are the worst in hundreds of years.
In the southwestern United States, the current drought that began in 2000 is the worst since year 800.
Climate models predict it will continue to the end of this century.
There was a drought in 1856 to 1865 that reduced bison herds enough to leave Indians hungry.
There were other ones in 1866-67, from 1930-36 and 1944-50.
While all of these droughts were in the southwest and west, there was drought in four out of five years in the 1960s in Northeastern United States and into Ontario and Quebec. •
— By Jim Romahn
Meat Processing Automation Program
The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) has launched its Beef and Pork Primary Processing Automation and Robotics Program, a $5M initiative designed to foster the development and adoption of innovative technology-based solutions to challenges facing red meat processors.
The 2022 Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) Competition for the Beef and Pork Primary Processing Automation and Robotics Program has been developed in response to the Canadian meat industry’s need to enhance global competitiveness, accelerate the adoption of emerging technology, mitigate challenges with worker safety and productivity and overcome the impacts of COVID-19 on meat (beef and pork) processing businesses.
The goal of this funding call is to support research and development to accelerate the adoption of automation and robotics in Canada’s primary meat processing industry.
With support from Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED), CAAIN is dedicating $5 Million to this program. The expected outcomes of this initiatives are: Increased profitability of stakeholders in the value chain; Improved global competitiveness of the Canadian beef and pork industries; Increased efficiencies of production; Decreased dependence on laborious, manual labour and complementing higher skilled positions; Improved worker safety in plants and Improved product quality and food safety.
Check their website for more information caain.ca •
New Feed Bin Sensors in Canada
Nanolike speeds up its growth and signs a first rollout of several hundred connected feed bin sensors in Canada with Ontario manufacturer.
Based on its numerous successes in Europe, Nanolike announced in February that it has reached a strategic milestone in the international deployment of its IoT solution to connect feed bins with the signature of a first large-scale deployment in Canada. This new partnership aims to streamline and innovate the feed supply chain management for one of Ontario’s leading feed manufacturers: Molesworth Farm Supply Ltd (MFS).
Benefiting from a disruptive innovation and a strong knowledge of the challenges faced by the farming industry, Nanolike continues to grow and now equips feed bins in more than 13 different countries. Nanolike’s solution allows feed manufacturers such as MFS to monitor the entire feed inventory in a few clicks, to avoid urgent deliveries and to optimize their delivery tours while standing out from the competition. The main point is offering an innovative service that guarantees more time and safety to the end user: the farmer no longer needs to climb the bin. •
Topigs Norsvin Celebrates a 100 Years of Genetic Progress
On February 24,1922 Dutch pig farmers established the Centraal Bureau voor de Varkensfokkerij* (*In English: Central Bureau for Pig Breeding) (CBV) with the aim of improving breeding. The founding of the CBV formed the start of what is now Topigs Norsvin. That means 100 years of genetic progress.
100 Years of progress by Topigs Norsvin is mainly a century of contributions to the success of pig farmers and the pork sector. Topigs Norsvin is a world leader in the field of pig breeding and has been an important partner for progressive producers for a hundred years. This is partly due to the unique and rock-solid combination of pig farmers’ input (who are still a major shareholder) and the possibilities that technological innovations have provided and still provide today. •
Cooling Pads Increase Piglet Weaning Weights
A patented Purdue University invention designed to cool sows and lower their respiration rate while farrowing has been licensed to Innovative Heating Technologies for further beta testing and commercialization.
Company President Chris Grant says Innovative Heating Technologies has more than 25 years of experience producing energy-efficient equipment for the agricultural industry and licensing the sow cooling pads is a perfect fit and the next logical step for the company.
The cooling pads, developed by Allan Schinckel, a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, and Robert Stwalley, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, are 2-foot-by-4-foot aluminum tread plates on top of copper pipes that circulate water. Since there is only room for the sow on the pad, piglets that need to stay warm are off the edge while they feed. Sensors in the pad can determine if the sow is getting too hot and circulate new water, cooling the pad again.
Schinckel, Stwalley and their students have published several peer-reviewed papers on sow lactation heat production, feed intake and the technology in journals including Applied Engineering in Agriculture, Journal of Animal Science, The Professional Animal Scientist and American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
Grant said Innovative Heating Technologies will beta test the pads through partnered research trials at Purdue and select producers’ test facilities. He added, the hog market is changing. Producers are driven to adopt and integrate new technologies related to improving sustainably and animal welfare. •
