News - Agriculture

Buoyed by pent-up demand and higher prices, Canada’s food manufacturing industry performed well in 2021, according to the latest FCC Annual Food Report.

A partner with Polar Pork Farms suggests escalating tensions in eastern Europe have the potential to destabilize food production globally. Reduced feed grain production due to drought last summer in western Canada followed by problems with trucking made accessing feed grain this winter challenging and now the conflict in Ukraine is impacting global grain production.

A summer experience program offered by the Western College of Veterinary Medicine is helping expose veterinary students to working with swine.

Western College of Veterinary Medicine undergraduate students are once again being offered the opportunity to gain hands on summer experience working with swine.

Canada’s farmland values climbed in spite of impacts from pandemic supply chain disruptions and adverse weather that affected parts of the country, as Farm Credit Canada’s (FCC) Farmland Values Report showed an 8.3-per-cent national average increase in 2021.

The impact of COVID-19 and Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea on Manitoba’s pork sector has prompted the creation of a working to group to look for possible solutions.

The Swine Health Information Center suggests increased PRRS and PED activity during February reflects the need to focus on biosecurity. The Swine Health Information Center’s monthly domestic swine disease surveillance report showed increased Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome activity in February and more Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea.

A swine diagnostic service launched just under one year ago is helping swine veterinarians use diagnostic results to formulate treatment strategies.

The Manitoba government is introducing legislation that would help expand the provincial table potato and root crop industry in response to concerns among producers and marketing agency Peak of the Market that red tape has prevented growth of the sector.

The Director of Risk Management with HAMS Marketing Services expects tight North American hog supplies and potential increased pork demand from China to limit the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on North American hog markets.