U.S. pondering bird flu testing of milk

 

The United States Department of Agriculture has made a proposal that bulk milk ought to be tested for highly-pathogenic avian influenza virus.

A number of dairy cattle have been infected and three dairy-farm workers have had mild infections with this virus which is deadly to poultry and has resulted in the culling of millions of birds in United States and Canada.

The government said testing bulk milk would be more efficient than testing milk from individual cows.

In April the government ordered all dairy cattle be tested for the virus as a condition for crossing state borders.

Another dairy worker has bird flu

 

A second Michigan farmworker has been diagnosed with bird flu.

It is the third case in the United States and all three worked with infected cattle. The first two had eye infections and this third one also had respiratory symptoms.

The farmworker was given antivirals and is recovering from respiratory symptoms, health officials said.

The Michigan cases occurred on different farms and there are no signs of spread among people, officials said.

The risk to the public remains low, although farmworkers exposed to infected animals are at higher risk, health officials said. 

“Risk depends on exposure, and in this case, the relevant exposure is to infected animals,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.

Respiratory symptoms mean the person might be coughing and that is more likely to spread the virus than an eye infection.

Canco-Heinz extend deal

 

Kraft Heinz Canada is extending its deal to buy tomato and bean supplies from Highbury Canco through at least the end of 2027.

The ingredients will go into ketchup and other foods worth about $1 billion at retail over the life of the contract.

Highbury Canco employs more than 600 people at its facility at Leamington. Besides tomato paste, it produces Heinz beans, Heinz tomato juice, and Classico pasta sauce.d

Heinz finishes processing to ketchup at a plant at Montreal.

"Extending our partnership with Kraft Heinz Canada for another four years provides significant stability for our facility and for our workforce," said Highbury Canco chief executive officer Sam Diab. 

"This is a mutually beneficial alliance that is of great significance to the Leamington community, and for all the Canadians that can continue to enjoy Kraft Heinz Canada products being produced at facilities such as ours," Diab said.

The plant was at the centre of controversy with the Ontario Processing Vegetable Marketing Board. The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Council dismissed the board in March, 2017, appointed Elmer Buchanan chairman.

He was a former minister of agriculture under the NDP government and he negotiated new grower contracts with processors.

The board has since regained its powers and has elected its own directors.

Meat industry wants more workers

A coalition of Canadian meat-industry organizations is lobbying the federal government to restore pandemic standards for temporary foreign workers.

The regulations were temporarily eased in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now the restrictions on numbers are back in place.

“If there’s a shortage of workers in the processing sector, it runs the risk that producers can’t ship their product to market, causing uncertainty for producers and consumers alike," said René Roy, chairman of the Canadian Pork Council. 

"We need to help recruit more new Canadians to rural areas, and creating uncertainty defeats our efforts to convince people to come join our industry,” he said.

On a different matter, the coalition worried about renewed plans to allow country-of-origin labeling for meats in the United States.

"Our concern is the U.S. is 70 per cent of our trading partners. We've worked diligently to harmonize our systems, whether it's our food safety system or growing systems," said Canadian Cattle Association chief executive officer Nathan Phinney. 

"It's everything that we stand for, and what we work on. Prescriptive measures like this could potentially hinder it or break it down."

Alberta Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson has promised he'll address the matter with fellow North American officials during an October trade summit. 

"We're going to continue to work with them to try to make them reconsider this decision," Sigurdson said. 

"It isn't implemented until January of 2026, so we're hoping that they will reconsider this decision."

The coalition is The Canadian Meat Council, the Canadian Cattle Association, National Cattle Feeders’ Association, and the Canadian Pork Council.

                  

Chicken sets modest quota

 

Chicken Farmers of Canada has set a modest production goal at one per cent above base for the quota period that runs from the end of August to the middle of October.

Ontario’s increase is 1.6 per cent.

The board will meet July 16 to set the production target to the end of November.

NFU asks cabinet to nix Bunge deal

The National Farmers Union is asking the federal government to nix Bunge’s deal to buy Viterra.

It believes that would reduce competition and would cost grain growers millions of dollars a year.

And if this deal is approved, other companies will try to buy competitors further increasing industry concentration, the NFU said.

The grain trade in Canada is already highly concentrated. 

Cargill, Richardson, G3 and Viterra hold nearly 70 percent of Canada’s prairie elevator capacity and 52 percent of total port terminal capacity. 

If Bunge is allowed to buy Viterra, the new company would be Canada’s dominant grain company.

It has significant operations in Ontario, including an oilseed crushing plant, and grain terminal facilities in Hamilton Harbour.

It’s Ontario head office is in Oakville.

Cabinet is scheduled to review in deal in early June.

Turkeys hit by new virus

Two turkey farms have been hit by avian metapneumovirus subtype B (aMPV B), which attacks the respiratory system of birds.

It claimed 253 turkeys in southwestern Ontario in recent months, according to the World Animal Health Information System.

The turkeys killed by the virus include 166 birds at a farm in Centre Wellington, north of Guelph, and 87 birds at a farm in Huron-Kinloss, Bruce County.

"For someone in my business, it's very scary because it's a large threat. It's a high risk," orge Cota told CBC news. He is the president of Canadian Select Genetics Ltd. of Putnam, Ont. 

"We're really tightening things down, and we're on high alert because this can be very devastating," he said.

Earlier this month, the Feather Board Command Centre (FBCC), which coordinates Ontario's poultry industry in response to disease risks, issued the latest in a number of increasingly urgent warnings to the province's poultry farmers.

It included a recommendation that biosecurity protocols at farms be heightened, and contained a specific warning for farms in Middlesex, Oxford and Perth counties.

Cota said "commercial farmers tend not to think at as highly a level as we do about biosecurity, but I'm sure they're aware and nervous. They've heard a lot of stories out of the U.S., and know what could happen to them," he said.

"But, you never know when someone or something is going to bring it onto your farm. Everyone learns eventually, but many people never think it'll happen to them."

AgriStats loses bid to exit price-fixing cases

 

AgriStats has lost its bid to be dismissed from price-fixing lawsuits for pork, chicken and beef filed by the United States Department of Justice.

AgriStats collected production and pricing information from meat-packing companies, compiled an industry report and sold it back to the companies which then could see where they stood in relationship to competitors.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in Minnesota denied, Indiana-based Agri Stats' motion to dismiss the case, saying the government's antitrust claims were sufficient to move forward for now, Reuters reports. Agri Stats denied wrongdoing.

According to a Reuters news agency article, the Justice Department, California, Texas, North Carolina and other states alleged last year in their lawsuit that Agri Stats was unlawfully collecting competitively sensitive industry information and sharing it with subscribers. They said major meat processors 

Quebec hogs are more costly

A government report has found that Quebec’s hog industry is far less competitive than Ontario, averaging a production cost of $306 per hog compared with $257 in Ontario.

The leadership of DuBreton company blames a combination of the provincial hog marketing board and government income insurance for the situation.

It also repeated complaints that the marketing board makes it difficult for specialty and niche-market producers and processors such as DuBreton to compete.

The industry is dominated by a farm co-operative that owns Olymel hog-production and hog-processing company.

Within the last year, the marketing board and Olymel have both drastically down-sized the Quebec hog industry.

The report from the provincial ministry of agriculture, fisheries and food said hogs are 19 per cent more expensive in Quebec than Ontario.

In the past Ontario has complained about unfair competition from Quebec, pointing to generous income supports funded by the province.

Thieves take 75 Angus cattle

Thieves made off with about 75 Black Angus cattle from a field in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec.

Tire tracks and a downed fence indicate they had a big truck to haul away the cattle during a night-time rustling.

Jonathan Fortin is part owner of Ferme Forthé at Cockshire-Eaton. He said he has spent years building up the erd while holding down a day-time off-farm job.

Cargill on strike

About 950 union members rejected a tentative agreement with Cargill and shut down the biggest beef-packing plant east of Alberta.

The plant on Dawson Road, Guelph, can slaughter 1,500 cattle a day.

Eight-two per cent of those who voted turned down the deal their union leaders had negotiated.

 

Union leaders said they will press for a better deal than the four-year one they had signed that included raises every year.

Farmers have few options other than exporting to the United States.

David Fawcett appointed

 

David Fawcett of Markdale has been appointed to a two-year term on the Normal Farm Practices Protection Board.

He is also a member of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeals Tribunal where he Is serving a second term.

He is finance manager for Creative Marketing and Communications and farms at Vandeleur.

The board has the power to inquire into and resolve a dispute respecting an agricultural operation, including the determination of what constitutes a normal farm practice; and  to make the necessary inquiries and orders to ensure compliance with its decisions.

The majority of its cases involve non-farming neighbours complaining about odours, noise and dust from nearby farms.

Do councillors consider this?

When residents petition city councils to allow backyard flocks, do they consider this report about salmonella food-poisoning bacteria?

The Centers for Disease Control in the United States reports:

“The current outbreak has spread to 109 people across 29 states after the people reportedly came into contact with chickens and ducks.

“Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma reported the highest number of cases. While no deaths have occurred, 33 individuals have been hospitalized. 

“The CDC noted the actual number of cases is likely higher, as many people recover without medical care and are not tested for salmonella.

“In this outbreak, 43 per cent of those infected are children under the age of five.

 

“The outbreak echoes a study published in April that highlighted the potential for backyard flocks to spread the disease.”

Parkhill Meats gets provincial boost

 

Parkhill Meats is getting $2.4 million from the province to boost its beef-packing business Yaser Al-Qayem  launched in 2016 in Middlesex County.

It now has 20 ermployees producing local and halal certified beef, veal, lamb and goat products for customers across Ontario.

 Al-Qayem said “the planning phase took us more than two years of debating what we should and could do, and what we are starting to build today is the first step towards implementing our strategic vision. 

“We’re grateful to so many stakeholders who supported us and continue to support us along the way.”

 

Craig McLaughlin, president of Beef Farmers of Ontario, welcomed the provincial support to increase slaughter capacity for Ontario-produced cattle.

He said Beef Farmers of Ontario will “continue to advocate for increased investment in the meat processing industry.”

Both the beef and hog industries are short of slaughter and processing capacity for the animals being raised.

Super Size me author has died

 

Morgan Spurlock, creator of documentaries about the fast-food and chicken industries, has died of complications related to cancer. He was 53.

He became famous for producing a documentary about going on a 30-day diet during which he ate every item on the McDonald’s menu, gained 20 pounds and felt terrible.

Then he made a documentary about going into the chicken business, opening a fast-food restaurant and partnering with a contract chicken producer to raise the birds.

That farmer went from top-notch ratings by his client chicken-processing company to bottom-rung classification when the company learned of his co-operation to produce the documentary. Compensation was based on the company ratings.

More recently, the big companies have been accused of collusion by sharing their producer ratings and not taking on farmers leaving another company.

Spurlock’s entry into the chicken business failed, but he was able to give viewers an inside look at the people and corporations that are involved in the fast-food restaurant business – from menu-planning advisors to store location and equipment suppliers.

Crop insurance for rye coming

 

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs intends to add fall rye to the crops for which farmers can buy crop insurance.

AgriCorp would handle the contracts if and when the regulatory change is approved.

Second dairy worker has bird flu

 

A second dairy-farm worker has been infected with highly-pathogenic avian influenza while working with infected dairy cows.

The first case was in Texas in April and the second is this week in Michigan.

The United States Centers for Disease Control the said the risk to the general public remains low.

As with the case in Texas, the Michigan worker’s symptoms were mild and limited to eyes and he has recovered.

Maple Leaf closing Brantford facility

 

Maple Leaf Foods is closing its 100-year-old poultry further-processing plant in Brantford.

What’s done there will be spread among other Ontario facilities the company owns.

The closure will be done in stages ending early next year.

Fruit, veggie growers embrace worker report

Ontario’s fruit and vegetable growers are welcoming the senate report on temporary foreign workers, despite its outspoken criticism about how the workers are treated.

One of the key recommendations of the committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology is that a new commission ought to be established as a one-stop place to deal with issues related to temporary foreign workers, cutting through the maze of different federal and provincial government departments with policies related to the program.

“The proposed commission with centralized services is in line with what fruit and vegetable growers have long been asking for – the creation of a one-stop shop for more efficient delivery of TFW  (temporary foreign worker) services for both employers and workers,” said Bill George, chairman of the Labour Committee at the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association

“Mistreatment of workers is unacceptable and as an industry, we have long been committed to the continuous improvement of Canada’s temporary foreign worker programs to ensure all workers have the opportunity for a positive, safe work experience while in Canada,” he said.

                           

 

 

Farmers tight-fisted employers

 The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council has found that many farmers are stingy with wages for employees.

The council surveyed 609 employees across 140 organizations and found the median wage for ranged from $18 to $28.00 per hour with grain farmers paying the most and dairy farmers and beekeepers only $20.

Median is the wage point at which the number making less equals those making more.

“The median for farm managers ranged from $30 to $39.90. Grain & oilseed paid the highest weighted average and median for farm managers,” the report stated. “Dairy paid the lowest farm manager wage across all industries by an estimated $4 an hour.”

General farm labourers, the lowest paid category overall, again received the highest median pay in the grain & oilseed sector ($21.67 per hour) while apiculture paid the least ($16.50 per hour).

The low wages in dairy and apiculture weren’t necessarily offset by non-monetary compensation such as health and dental plans, the survey found.

While more than half of organizations surveyed indicate they offer these, dairy more than 70 per cent of dairy businesses did.

The most common benefit was training and development, at 87 per cent of employers.

The council said its study can provide farmers with a better understanding of compensation practices so they can build better relationships with their employees.

“Providing essential compensation data resources to all industry producers is a critical step to attracting top talent, retaining current experienced talent and bettering careers in the agriculture industry,” the study said. 

“Rethinking the standard approaches of how employees are compensated and supported through benefits can serve to improve the current agriculture labour market shortages.

                          

 

 

 

Another Enoki mushroom recall

 

Meta brand Enoki mushrooms are under recall.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency detected Listeria monocytogenes food-poisoning bacteria in a batch distributed in Ontario.

It has had no reports of illnesses

Senate committee slams foreign worker program

A Senate committee has issued a report that slams the 50-year-old temporary foreign workers program.

While one senator conceded that many employers treat the workers well, she said that others treat them like slaves.

 Senator Ratna Omidvar, chair of the committee that prepared the report, said the program needs immediate changes.

It recommends a three-person commission to regularly review the program, one to represent the workers, another to represent the employers and the third the federal government.

The commission would gather data, issue an annual report to parliament, consult with provincial and municipal officials and serve as a single point of contact and response to reports of abuse and/or mistreatment.

Omidvar said migrant labour administration is an “alphabet soup of departments, agencies and organizations sending inspectors and inspections” to enforce various and overlapping compliance and enforcement regimes. 

 

She said not one witness could identify a particular organization or body responsible for ensuring standards were met. 

It calls for an end within three years to permits that are tied to a single employer and for consultations about changing the permits to regional ones and related to a specific industry such as farming or meat-packing.

 

It recommends changes that would make it easier for workers to achieve Permanent Residence Status, the first step towards becoming a Canadian citizen.

 

The report wants to “increase funding to the Migrant Workers Support Program and existing grassroots organizations to support dedicated services across the country to help migrant workers navigate Canadian bureaucracy before, during and after their stay, including accessing health care, social supports like Employment Insurance, and immigration needs.”

 

It wants the program to provide more pre- and on-arrival information about migrant workers’ rights to access health care, including what the employer is required to provide, how to access interim private health insurance, if required, and how to apply for provincial or territorial coverage and calls for a number of other changes to ensure workers have access to health care.

The executive summary of the report begins by saying “It is clear that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is neither temporary nor a last and limited resort. The program is not working for migrant workers and could work better for employers.”

                           

 

 

 

. 

 

 

 

Avian flu in three Michigan dairy herds

 

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) announced positive tests for highly-pathogenic avian influenza in dairy cows in Clinton, Gratiot and Ionia counties.

The department is urging farmers to practice enhanced biosecurity, regardless of species.

The advice includes isolating new or returning animals on farms, monitoring the health of animals daily, and cleaning and disinfecting trailers used to haul animals.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently said it will provide $98 million to help states and ranchers keep the virus from spreading.

State and federal officials continue to monitor cases in 42 herds.

Beyond efforts on farms, U.S. senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, and senators Amy Klobachar, a Democragt from Minnesota, and John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, sent a joint letter to the USDA, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calling for “interagency coordination” to provide “up-to-date, accurate information on the spread of HPAI, particularly 

Wine area to expand

The Ontario Wine Appellation Authority is proposing a new regional appellation named "West Niagara".

It would involve amending boundaries of the existing Niagara Escarpment regional appellation to include St. David's Bench. 

"West Niagara" would include the Niagara sub-appellations Beamsville Bench, Creek Shores, Lincoln Lakeshore, Short Hills Bench, Twenty Mile Bench and Vinemount Ridge.

The new "Niagara West" regional appellation would encompass all sub-appellations west of St. Catharines. 

This is consistent with the existing regional appellation "Niagara-on- the-Lake" that encompasses all sub-appellations east of St. Catharines. 

The change brings names in line with the physical boundaries of the escarpment.

These changes will make the Niagara appellation framework similar for the east and west areas of Niagara and more consistent with consumer perceptions, tourism and marketing conventions linked to regional travel, the authority said.

The authority also wants to add Frontenac Noir, Frontenac Gris and Frontenac Blanc to the list of approved hybrid grape varieties that can be used on labels.

As well, the grape variety Hibernal would be moved to the list of hybrid varieties permitted to be used in varietally-labelled hybrid wines. 

Bee keepers given $1 million

The federal and Ontario governmeents are adding $1 million to the Honey Bee Health Initiative to help improve the resiliency and competitiveness of beekeeper operations in Ontario. 

The additional funding will used to better protect colonies over the winter and protect against invasive pests such as varroa mites.

“So many of the crops grown across Ontario depend on healthy bee populations,” said federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay.

The Honey Bee Health Initiative opened on September 15, 2023, with a budget of more than $1.3 million. To date, 218 projects have been approved. 

“Honey bees play an important role in our agriculture and food industry as well as in Ontario’s ecosystem”, said Ontario Agriculture  Minister Lisa Thompson.

This program is delivered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA).

“Ontario’s beekeepers and the honey bee industry are integral parts of Ontario’s food supply and food security,” said Ian Grant, president of the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association.

He welcomed the support.

Food price inflation easing

While prices for food purchased from stores continue to increase, the index grew at a slower pace year over year in April than in March, reports Statistics Canada.

In March the food inflation rate was 2.9 per cent and in April 1.4 per cent.

Meat contributed the most to slower price growth, largely due to a base-year effect in prices for fresh or frozen beef, which were up by 4.4 per cent,  

Other contributors to the slowdown in grocery prices were bakery and cereal products, up by two-tenths of a per cent, fruit, fruit preparations and nuts , up by eight-tenths of a per cent.

Since April 2021, food prices at supermarkets increased by 21.4 per cent.

I'm wondering what May will look like, given a whopping increase in fluid milk prices at the major supermarket chains.

 

Price growth for food purchased from restaurants also eased on a yearly basis, rising by 4.3 per cent in April 2024 following a 5.1 per cent increase in March. 

Food is the second-largest major Consumer Price Index (CPI) component. Based on 2022 expenditures, Canadians spent 16.65 per cent of their household budget to food purchases, with food purchased from stores accounting for 11.04 per cent of household budgets. 

Grocery prices are mostly captured using scanner data, also known as point-of-sale data, received directly from grocery retailers. 

Scanner data are the highest quality price data available and the gold standard for price collection. They track actual prices paid by Canadians at the till, including sales, promotions and quantity details.

The overall inflation rate in April was 2.7 per cent, down from 3.9 in March. Gasoline prices rose by eight per cent.

                  

 

Pelleting hog feed improves digestibility

Pelleting corn-based hog rations increases digestibility, according to research at the University of Illinois.

But so, too, does decreasing particle size in regular meal rations. In fact, small particle size was more beneficial than pelleting.

The research team compared results from six different hog rations. They compared three different particle sizes and pelleted or meal rations.

PED hits two nursery barns

 

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea has broken out at two nursery barns, one in Huron County, the other in Wellington County.

The disease often has a high mortality rate among piglets.

There have been 17 PED outbreaks since the beginning of April.

Feds invest $9.6 million in hog preparedness

 

The federal agriculture department is investing almost $9.6 million to help the hog industry prepare for an outbreak of African Swine Fever, announced Francis Drouin, parliamentary secretary to Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay.

Some of it is for a new device that can provide on-farm testing for the virus. The Canadian Pork Council worked with McMaster University to develop the ASFMeter which is portable and can conduct a test at low cost.

Other projects include improving biosecurity, managing wild pig activities, retrofitting abattoirs, regional depopulation plans and sector analysis and education programs, Drouin said.

René Roy, chairman of the Canadian Pork Council, said the collaboration with McMaster and the federal agriculture department “brings together expertise in research and technology, ensuring that the ASFMeter meets the rigorous standards required for rapid and accurate ASF detection.”

Sweda changes lawyers again

 

Sweda Farms Ltd., owned by Svante Lind of Blackstock, has changed its legal firm again to pursue its lawsuit against L.H. Gray and Son Ltd. and the Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board.

The new one is Wagner Sidlofsky. The previous one was Blaney McMurtry and before that Donald Good.

The original lawsuit, which included Burnbrae Farms Ltd., was filed in 2008.

In a nutshell, Lind believes that the two dominant egg-grading companies, which account for about 90 per cent of Ontario’s eggs, conspired with the egg board to drive his egg-grading station out of business.

The egg board claimed Lind’s egg-grading business was cheating it out of levies which apply only to Grade A eggs by culling out a larger percentage of eggs than the provincial average.

Lind countered that the two were including cracked eggs in their Grade As, an allegation that Ontario Farmer confirmed by obtaining the results of random sample testing by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Lind also claimed that e-mails between Gray and Burnbrae indicated they colluded over market shares and pricing.

All three defendants have denied any wrongdoing and Burnbrae has been dismissed from the lawsuit after Good failed to demand Burnbrae furnish documents to match e-mails to and from Gray.

The judge ruled that meant there was insufficient evidence against Burnbrae.

Lone Star restaurant signs on with Corn Fed Beef

 

Lone Star Texas Grill in Ottawa is offering Ontario Corn Fed Beef at its 23 restaurants in Ontario.

The chain was started kin 1986 by two football players from Texas who came to like living in Ottawa.

It serves Tex-Mex dishes with an emphasis on beef.

“The partnership with Ontario Beef is an important one,” said Lyndon O’Hearn, director purchasing for Lone Star. 

“As an Ontario company, we wanted to connect with Ontario beef farmers to bring high quality locally produced Ontario beef to our menu. 

“The consistent great taste of Ontario Corn Fed Beef aligns well with our commitment to quality.”

Politically correct burger flops

 

A politically correct hamburger is not selling well in Australia.

Grill’d, a retailer with 61 stores, has found little public enthusiasm for its low-methane beef, so it cutting off supplies to all but seven of its stores.

Those seven are located in “environmentally-aware” communities., the company said.

A Grill’d executive told Australian industry news site Beef Central that the burgers would now be priced the same as standard beef versions. They were charging $1 extra for the Gamechanger burgers.

The company said the Gamechanger is made from cattle belching and farting two-thirds less climate-changing methane. Grill’d called it “the world’s first all-natural sustainable beef burger” when rolling out the sandwiches in January 2023.

The company sources its Gamechanger hamburger from Angus herds raised on grass and fed seaweed pellets to lower methane gas emissions.

Grill’d also markets vegetarian  burgers, chicken sandwiches, wagyu beef and lamb burgers. 

The company has a history of short-lived sustainability experiments, including an entirely plant-based menu at a few locations, and a no-meat menu once a week, Meat Central reported.