Robert Anderson of Strathroy has been appointed to a two-year term as chairman of AgriCorp.
He is is the vice-president of operations at Nortera Foods.
AgriCorp is an Ontario government agency created in 1997 to delivercrop insurance and other agricultural business risk management programs.
Canada’s agriculture ministers plan to double the AgriStability payment cap to $6 million and add paid labour by farm family members as an eligible expense.
They said after a meeting In Halifax that they intend to make the changes before the end of next year.
The priorities during the meeting of federal, provincial and territorial ministers of agriculture were business risk management, trade diversification and research and innovation.
“These priorities will guide the development of the Next Policy Framework over the coming year,” said federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald.
“The goal is to build a framework that provides the flexibility to respond to regional priorities and evolving needs of the agriculture sector while supporting long-term success and sustainability,” he said.
Democratic politicians in the United States have drafted legislation to force the breakup of dominant meat-packing companies.
Democrats lack enough votes on their own to pass the bills in the House of Representatives and Senate or to over-ride a president’s veto.
They cite Cargill, JBS, Tyson and National Beef collectively owning 85 per cent of the U.S. beef market resulting in higher retail prices.
The Family Grocery and Farmer Relief Act imposes structural reforms to restore competition to the industry proposals
1. Makes it unlawful for a major meatpacking conglomerate to control more than one major type of meat (e., pork, chicken, beef)
2. Imposes hard caps on the concentration of beef markets at both the regional and national levels and authorizes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to order divestiture from the market if those caps are exceeded;
3. Prohibits foreign leverage over the domestic meat market, empowering FTC to protect competition and national security;
4. Directs the FTC to enforce against discriminatory pricing practices in retail and wholesale meat markets that hit independent and neighborhood grocers the hardest;
5. Authorizes the Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide financial assistance, loan guarantees, and technical assistance to farmers’ cooperatives and small business concerns to acquire meatpacking facilities divested under the Act; and
6. Creates enforceable penalties for corporations that fail to properly divest, enforceable under the FTC Act.
There is a recall of more than 30 meat products under labels Charcuterie Charlevoisienne and Joe Smoked Meat.
The producer is based in Quebec.
The Canadian Food Inspection agency detected Listeria monocytogenes food-poisoning bacteria in the products which were sold through retailers and online.
The CFIA said no illnesses have been linked to the products.
Grain Growers of Canada is welcoming an announcement that the port at Roberts Bank, Vancouver, will be improved.
The plans include a Second Narrows rail crossing.
As Canada’s principal gateway for grain exports to international markets, the Port of Vancouver is critical to the competitiveness of Canadian agriculture and to the government’s goal of doubling exports to non-U.S. markets by 2035, Grain Growers of Canada said.
More than half of the grain grown in Canada is exported through the port, representing approximately $35 million in grain and grain products every day.
Also involved are improvements at Roberts Bank Terminal 2 and the government’s commitment to developing a rail infrastructure strategy focused on capacity, reliability and resilience.
However, Grain Growers said the success of the Gateway Strategy will ultimately depend on addressing long-standing rail bottlenecks, beginning with the Second Narrows rail crossing.
Prioritizing this critical project will ensure the movement of grain and other export commodities, reduce congestion, and strengthen Canada’s ability to compete in global markets.
There is a significant shift underway in commercial hog ration formulation, reports Swineweb.
Independent research is confirming that targeted swine gut stabilizers provide unmatched structural protection for vulnerable herds, it reported.
It said it’s a world-wide shift as nutrition formulation teams are actively integrating these additives into elite starter and sow diets.
The biological necessity for advanced gut stabilization is most pronounced during the post-weaning window, when piglets experience intense environmental transitions and volatile gut microbiome shifts, it said.
When these young herds encounter systemic stresses, their natural nutrient utilization rates collapse, triggering immediate body weight loss and elevating the mathematical risk of secondary bacterial breaks.
By introducing specialized stabilizers directly into the initial creep feed, nutritionists effectively fortify the natural intestinal barrier, ensuring steady nutrient absorption even during high-density stress cycles.
Clinical tracking demonstrates that this integrated feeding strategy yields measurable improvements in commercial finishing floor throughput, it said.
The United States has reported a 12 per cent increase in pork exports to Canada for the first half of this year.
The total was 65,306 tonnes valued at $258.5 million US, ($362.15 million Cdn) which was 10 per cent more than the same period last year.
American agricultural economists said the Canadian market is important to avoid a backup of hog inventories.
Swineweb reports they said the cross-border volume growth is exerting a direct, positive influence on independent producer balance sheets, adding substantial per-head value to every market hog sold.