Ryan and Romy Schill of Wallenstein are this year’s outstanding young farmers for Ontario.
They own Circle R Livestock Ltd. and Revolution Wool Company.
They own about 700 ewes which they cross between Dorset and Rideau breeds.
Circle R Livestock owns the sheep and Revolution Wool Company works with Canadian mills to make and market a variety of products.
They now advance to the national competition where a winner will be named in November at the Royal Agriculture Winter Fair.
And that prompted China to retaliate with an 84 per cent tariff on everything from the U.S. And to file a second appeal to the World Trade Organization.
Canadian farmers are likely to feel the impacts.
China might buy pork and beef from Canada instead, but because the U.S. faces such high tariffs to export to China, its pork and beef prices will probably decline, and Canadian prices track U.S. prices.
China had hit U.S. corn with a 15 per cent tariff and soybeans with 60 per cent, but those now apparently increase to 84 per cent.
While China could buy Canadian canola instead of U.S. soybeans, it has put a tariff on canola oil and meal in response to Canada’s 100 per cent tariff on China’s electric vehicles. The Canadian car tariff matches on the U.S. imposed and keeps Canada from becoming a back door for China to sell the cars to the U.S.
Trump’s tariff moves are facing increasing opposition from within the U.S. and consternation around the world.
Waterloo Region Police have charged five people in connection with the theft of about $8,000 worth of butter and ghee.
Their investigation of 15 store thefts in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge between September and February led them to lay charges against four people from Caledon.
They are four men and one woman between the ages of 24 and 38.
New research shows that spraying from drones can be as effective as ground sprayers.
The evaluation used low-drift nozzles at low volumes of between one and 1.5 gallons per acre (9.35 litres per hectare).
The research was for weed control in turfgrass and was conducted by Dr. Muthukumar Bagavathiannan of Texas A&M University.
“While there are some indications from this research that certain herbicides can be sprayed using RPAAS (drones) without the need for mixing in water, further experimentation is needed for confirmation,” said Dr. Augusto Costa, a researcher with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation who contributed as the study’s first and co-corresponding author.
Dr. Daniel Martin of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service at College Station, Texas, provided aerial application technology collaboration in this research.
Their testing was reported in the Journal of Weed Technology published by the Weed Science Society of America.
The United States Food and Drug Administration is suspending efforts to improve its bird flu testing of milk, cheese and pet food because of staff cuts by the team headed by Elon Musk.
The FDA’s testing for bird flu in dairy products has found that pasteurization kills the virus, and has also provided clues to the scope of the virus’s spread. At least two house cats have died after eating raw pet food that later tested positive for bird flu.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, on Tuesday began firing 10,000 employees to comply with President Donald Trump’s push to shrink the federal workforce.
The Interlaboratory Comparison Exercise for detecting Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has been suspended because of cuts to staff at the FDA’s Human Food Program that would have supported the scientific and testing needs of the program, an internal e-mail obtained by Reuters news agency said.
The program would have included more than 40 laboratories across FDA’s Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN) and USDA’s National Animal Health Laboratory Network, as well as FDA food labs and private industry.
“(The program) would have been critical to ensure confidence in the laboratory methods for food safety and animal health,” the e-mail said.
Peter VanderZaag of Alliston has been awarded a King Charles III coronation medallion for his potato breeding that has benefitted people in about 60 countries.
He was nominated by MPP Brian Saunderson.
He was involved with food for work projects which were the precursors to the Canada Food Grains Bank.
He has worked to improve potato production in Africa, Asia and Canada and also won the National Friendship award in 2014.
VanderZaag was commissioned to serve with World Renew, a relief and development agency for the Christian Reformed Church of North America, in Bangladesh to assist with potato and vegetable production.
His farming and potato research in Canada have developed new potato varieties for general potato production and support Indigenous communities in Ontario.
There has been an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in a finisher barn in Grey/Bruce.
It is the 32nd outbreak of either PED or porcine deltacoronavirus in Ontario this year.
A Minnesota judge has put all of the pork price-fixing lawsuits together.
The defendants include Agri Stats Inc., Clemens Food Group, Hormel Foods, JBS USA, Seaboard Foods, Smithfield Foods, Triumph Foods and Tyson Foods.
The plaintiffs comprise three certified classes—direct purchasers, consumer indirect purchasers, and commercial indirect purchasers—as well as dozens of direct-action plaintiffs. They argued that the defendants coordinated supply reductions to manipulate pork prices between 2009 and 2018.
Some of the pork packers have settled with plaintiffs by offering compensation, but not admitting any guilt.
In the 232-page ruling, the judge dismissed Hormel from the case, while the others’ motions to be dismissed were denied. The lawsuit centres on claims that the defendants used Agri Stats' industry reports to share sensitive pricing and production information, allegedly facilitating anti-competitive practices.
In addition to federal Sherman Act violations, the plaintiffs cite breaches of various state antitrust, consumer protection and unjust enrichment laws.
The case also includes claims under the Packers and Stockyards Act.
The parent company of Case IH, New Holland, Steyr and other machinery brands is suspending shipments from its factories in the United States and Europe until it can assess the impact of tariffs.
Fewer sugar beets will be grown this year in Ontario as the American buyer finds farmers closer to home willing to grow them.
Matthew Noorloos, chairman of the Ontario Sugar Beet Growers Association, said 3,582 Canadian shares (acres) were sold back to the Michigan Sugar Co. voluntarily in December.
"The main reason is the company pays for 50 per cent of the freight . . . we are the farthest" from the processing plant, he said.
Since local farmers started growing sugar beets in the early 2000s, Noorloos said yields in some fields have doubled to as high as 50 tons an acre.
"The [Michigan] plant has a fixed processing capacity, so they're always trying to optimize the acreage to process the right amount of tons, so you don't have spoilage from carrying over too many tons," he said.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have determined that they can detect PRRS and Influenza A from samples gathered from the tip of pigs’ tongues.
The results were almost as accurate as traditional tests.
They said their test “reduces the need for more invasive and expensive sampling procedures, offering a budget-friendly option for producers.”
Jack Chaffe has been awarded a King Charles III Coronation Medallion for his work as a pioneer in the Ontario Corn Fed Beef Quality Assurance Program and Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef pilot.
He' has also served as board director, committee chairman, and president of the Beef Farmers of Ontario, as well as a director at the Canadian Cattle Association.
Chaffe was committee co-chairman of foreign trade, co-chairman of domestic agriculture policy and regulations, was Ontario’s representative for the National Beef Check-off Agency, and representative to the Canada Beef Marketing Committee and the Canada Beef Grading Agency.
The award was presented by Matthew Rae, his Member of Parliament for Perth-Wellington during the annual meeting of the Ontario Cattle Feeders Association.
Farmers seem to have caught a case of the jitters, judging by a 12-point decline in their opinion about their economic future as judged by a survey conducted by Purdue University and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
The survey of about 400 farmers conducted in mid-March registered a decline to 140 points on the Ag Economy Barometer.
The measure for future expectations declined by 15 points to 144 and for current conditions by five points to 132.
An avian flu quarantine in Zorra Township in Oxford County has been lifted.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency imposed the quarantine zone on Dec. 22.
David Thompson is moving from Ontario to the National Farmers Union as its new executive director.
He has worked for the Ontario branch on policy research and analysis, managing programs and interviewing farmers.
He has also been on working groups with the International Programs Committee.
“Dave is the kind of deeply knowledgeable leader who brings everyone along while staying firmly committed to the mission and values of the NFU,” said NFU president, Jenn Pfenning who is an organic farmer between New Hamburg and Baden, Ont.
He earned a master’s degree in cultural, social and political thought from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and a PhD in history from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
In 2018, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ottawa. Much of his academic work was about the history of labour and activism. He has also worked as a union organizer for the Public Service Alliance of Canada which represents federal government workers.
A farmer’s co-operative, Compeer Financial, has included Sunterra Farms of Alberta in a lawsuit alleging cheque kiting.
The lawsuit is against three hog farms in Yankton County, South Dakota—Sunwold Farms, Sunterra Farms, and Lariagra Farms—alleging involvement in a cheque kiting scheme resulting in significant financial losses.
The lawsuit, filed in the South Dakota District Court, seeks the appointment of a receiver to manage approximately 110,000 hogs and to recover damages totaling $36 million.
According to the complaint, the defendants pledged their pig inventory as colla
Cheque kiting involves creating artificial balances by continuously writing cheques between accounts at different banks without sufficient funds, exploiting the time it takes for cheques to clear.
The entities involved are connected to the Sunterra Group, a multi-state and international swine operation led by the Price family based in Alberta.
Sunterra Group manages approximately 500,000 pig spaces across various entities, including Sunwold and Lariagra.
Specifically, Sunwold Farms, a South Dakota corporation, finishes over 62,000 pigs, while Lariagra Farms, also based in South Dakota, finishes approximately 48,725 pigs.
A federal judge in Minnesota has ruled that Sysco must uphold a $50 million settlement agreement with JBS.
The decision stops Sysco from seeking more money by participating in a coalition of plaintiffs about price fixing.
The settlement required Sysco to release all claims against JBS once payment was made, however, in June 2023, Sysco assigned its claims to Carina Ventures,;
In March, the court formally recognized Carina as the new plaintiff. JBS argued that Carina’s rights were still bound by the original settlement, nullifying any additional claims.
This week the court agreed with JBS.
The Canadian Meat Council (CMC) launched the Protein PACT sustainability framework for the Canadian meat processing sector on Thursday.
It comes amidst United States President Donald Trump’s plans to disrupt relations with a 26 per cent tariff on Canadian products, presumably including meat.
The Protein Pact aims to enhance sustainability practices across the industry, aligning with global standards while addressing critical issues, CMC said in a release. It is a close joint effort with the U.S. meat industry.
The Protein PACT was developed by the U.S. based Meat Institute, in which Canada’s main meat packers are members, is a partnership uniting stakeholders across the animal protein industry to accelerate progress toward global sustainable development goals, focusing on people, animals, communities and the environment, the organization said in a news release.
Bringing the Protein PACT to Canada allows CMC members to collaboratively and pre-competitively advance the sustainability of the animal processing sector. By adapting this framework for Canada, CMC’s goal is to emplower Canadian meat processors to collaborate on shared sustainability goals and work together to improve North American-wide practices, it said,
“Canada’s red meat processing sector have sophisticated science-based practices and outcomes across their establishments and systems in place,” CMC president and chief executive officer Chris White. “This initiative will provide a vehicle to broadly communicate these initiatives and demonstrate our leadership to key stakeholders.”
Through initiatives like the Protein PACT, the North American meat processing industry is poised to make even greater strides in advancing sustainability and meeting the challenges of the future together, the release said.
“By uniting industry stakeholders under a common framework, the Protein PACT will ensure that Canada’s meat processors can continuously improve their operations to achieve the highest standards of sustainability, transparency, and accountability,” Meat Institute President and chief executive Julie Anna Potts said.
Chairmsn Steve Dolson said the project remains in the early stages, and over the next few months the team will be reaching out to more businesses in the immediate area to try and secure their membership and show that there's solid interest in the project.
"We are going to be developing plans to go outside the Huron-Perth area to get financial support for this whole centre to be a reality. It's at minimum a $20 million project and potentially upwards of $38 million," Dolson said.
He said this will be Canada's first agriculture and food science centre and it will be 10 acres of land beside the Listowel arena.
Dolson said the centre will aim to educate people about the agri-food industry's importance, but another goal is to encourage young people to take interest in the industry.
"We also want to excite young people about the many, many careers that are out there in this field. There's a lot of opportunities out there that people aren't aware of and we want to stimulate that interest, as well," Dolson shared enthusiastically.
The board includes Sylvia Behrns, Dawne Boersen, Dave Bray, Barry Crean, Steve Dolson, Cassie Greidanus, Elizabeth Johnston, Jillian Lewis, Claudia Prescott, Christine Schoonderwoerd and Marlin Stoltz.
So far, those supporting the centre include Boulevard North, Corteva Agriscience, DesignLogix Engineering Inc., Grand River Agricultural Society, Hensall Co-op, Huron Perth Agriculture and Water Festival, Molesworth Farm Supply Ltd., Ontario Trillium Foundation, OPPA Branch 6, Perth County Cultivating Opportunity Grant, Schoonderwoerd Bros. Concrete Ltd., The Municipality of North Perth, Trillium Mutual Insurance, Ward & Uptigrove and Wallenstein Feed & Supply Ltd.
There could soon be a vaccine against African Swine Fever based on work by researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and Virginia Tech .
They have genetically engineered a weakened version of the the deadly virus using reverse genetics—essentially “building” the virus from cloned DNA in a controlled laboratory setting. This advancement allows scientists to safely manipulate specific genes in the virus, enabling the creation of an attenuated vaccine strain.
Dr. Douglas Gladue of the ARS team said it is “a major step forward” because the weakened virus builds immunity without sickening pigs.
While this doesn’t mean an immediate end to ASF, it does signal a potential turning point.
The Niagara Region will host the International Plowing Match and Rural Expo at the Niagara Fairground Sept. 15 to 20.
It was last held in Niagara Region in 1926.
As usual, the event will have daily entertainment, animal exhibits, demonstrations, local artisans, farm and rural goods and services, a rodeo and, of course, plowing competitions.
Canadian dealers sold only 21 new combines in January, down from 123 last year, and United States dealers sold 97 this year compared with 460 last year.
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers reported that Canadian sales of four-wheel-drive tractors increased from 49 last year to 59 this year.
There has been a second outbreak of highly-pathogenic avian influenza in Lambton County. The first was Mar. 14.
London Public Health Unit has been working with the Ontario Ministry of Health, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) †o contain, monitor, and respond to the situation.
Cam Hamilton, a regional manager with the CFIA, said migrating birds are carrying the virus, but may be infecting wild birds that stay all summer and pose an ongoing threat.
He also said in an interview with CBC Radio Kitchener that infected migrating waterfowl might contaminate ponds and rodents could become infected and carry the disease into poultry barns.
John and David Lugtigheid presented the Canadian Foodgrains Bank with $39,000 on Tuesday at the Evangel Community Church.
The father and son have been growing and selling crops for the organization on land owned by the church.
John Lugtigheid told Chthm-Kent News Today they've never collected a cent off of any of the work.
"Over the years, we've never turned a bill in and we still pay our help for doing the work," he said.
John also gave a shoutout to local agri-businesses who have donated fertilizer and other chemicals.
"The local agri-businesses have been very good in supporting [the farm]," he said.
John said he's expecting another $4,000 to $5,000 once they get the farm's premium payment
Henry Reinders, an Ontario regional representative for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, said the grain is no longer shipped to needy people overseas, but sold and the money used to provide help.
"We're not spending money on shipping costs. We're providing the people who are receiving the food a product they're familiar with because we're buying it locally, and we're also helping local farmers who have something to sell by providing a market for them," Reinders said.
Journlist Anthony Pahlky took aim at United States President Donald Trump’s impact on farmers, and it’s not nice. This is some of what he wrote:
For someone who tells us frequently how much he loves farmers, Trump sure has a strange way of showing it.
Look no further than how his tariffs on China have sparked retaliatory actions targeting U.S. exports of products including soy, corn, wheat and pork. American grain farmers still struggle to regain the market share that they lost to Brazilian competitors the last time Trump was in power.
Potential responses from Mexico and Canada will only exact more economic damage.
To the north, a possible tariff on potash — a key ingredient in fertilizer — will drive up input prices for our producers and cut into their already thin profit margins.
To the south, if Trump’s efforts at using tariffs in 2018 are any indication, U.S. farmers can expect their markets for pork, milk and cheese to be negatively affected.
Trump’s promise during his address to Congress — that farmers will now be selling into our home market — may be forced upon our nation’s food producers because they won’t have the chance to sell anywhere else.
Still, agricultural policy doesn’t have to operate this way. Tariffs particularly, when used along with a larger ensemble of tools such as targeted investments and antitrust enforcement, could make markets more profitable and competitive. But as tariffs are currently being deployed, farmers can expect four years of economic hardship.
But rather than having such foresight when thinking about our nation’s food security, the USDA has canceled the Local Food for Schools Program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, which together represent over $1 billion in funding to support local farmers sell to schools and food banks.
Along with funding freezes for specific projects, including initiatives for planting organic crops and improving water lines on operations, farmers are having both their productive capacity and domestic markets taken from them.
What we know from Trump 1.0 is that when markets are harmed, the government may step in — with bailouts. Last time the Republican was in office, trade wars with China led to two relief packages.
As much is almost guaranteed now, as export markets are threatened and programs that could help farmers transition for local, domestic production, are being cut.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ expedited $10 billion in emergency payments to mark National Agriculture Day for “market uncertainty” is a taste of what is to come.
Meanwhile, Trump has once again made dairy policy national news, targeting Canada for protecting its producers with tariffs in that country’s system known as supply management.
In terms of specifics, the Canadian system assures a base price for farmers by coordinating supply and demand, including what is imported into the country.
Back when renegotiating NAFTA, Canada’s supply management system caught Trump’s attention for limiting the entry of U.S. dairy exports. Part of the USMCA deal, which replaced NAFTA, assured U.S. dairy farmers slightly greater access to Canadian markets.
But even with the USMCA in effect, dairy farm exits have risen. In Wisconsin, from 2014 to 2024, the state experienced a 46 percent decrease in the number of dairies.
The state led the country in farm bankruptcies in 2020 and 2021, fresh off the heels of Trump supposedly taking a stand to support U.S. farmers against unfair Canadian trade practices.
Moral of the story: Scapegoating the Canadian system for challenges dairy farmers face didn’t help keep U.S. producers on the land when Trump was president the first time.
Accordingly, there is no reason why pursuing this approach again will generate any different results.
Without tackling the concentrated nature of agricultural markets, Trump’s promise to farmers that they can sell domestically is really an invitation to poverty.
Tariffs could be part of an effort to truly assist America’s farmers. Trump deserves some credit in this regard, particularly for pushing back on the free trade orthodoxy that has reigned unchallenged for decades.
But pushing tariffs on their own while contracts are cut and programs are canceled, is a recipe for disaster for our country’s food producers. Farmers deserve better.
The National Pork Producers Association in the United States is pleading for Canada to drop plans to impose retaliatory pork tariffs.
“The tit-for-tat tariff exchanges will disrupt supply chains that have been built up over decades. We request that Canada seeks to preserve the benefits of the integrated North American market to the maximum extent practicable, including by excluding U.S. pork imports from retaliation,” said Maria Zieba, the council’s vice-president for government affairs. It was in a letter to Canadian government officials.
“As of this writing, goods originating in North America, including Canadian pork, are exempt from tariffs. While we cannot predict what will happen in the future, NPPC supports continued duty-free trade in both directions,” she wrote.
“A trade war will leave the North American pork sector weaker and more fragmented. While we understand the impulse to impose tariffs on U.S. goods in response to unjustified U.S. tariffs, such duties likely would rupture the integrated supply chain that has been so beneficial to our two countries, especially since the creation of NAFTA,” she wrote.
So, her advice to Canadians is to sit there and take it. No way!
The federal government has doubled AgriStability support for canola farmers hit by China’s 100 per cent tariff on canola oil and meal. It has not increased tariffs on canola seed.
The announcement came late Saturday afternoon, ahead of an expected Sunday election call.
Agriculture minister Kody Blois said the agriculture sector is experiencing multiple challenges, including China’s canola tariff and the U.S. threats of a 25 per cent tariff next week.
AgriStability’s compensation rate has been increased from 80 to 90 percent and the $3-million payment cap has been doubled for this year.
Bird flu has been detected in an ewe in northern England, the first known case of its kind in the world, Britain’s government said.
Many different mammals have died of the H5N1 bird flu virus across the globe including bears, cats, dairy cows, dogs, dolphins, seals, tigers and million of chickens and turkeys have been slaughtered to prevent the disease from spreading to other commercial flocks.
The case was identified following routine surveillance of farmed livestock on a premises in Yorkshire where highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) had been confirmed in birds, the government said.
Although there have been a few human infections, most of them mild, there has been no spread from a human to another human.
The sheep that tested positive was a ewe with signs of mastitis and no other clinical signs, the government said.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reported an outbreak of avian influenza in a commercial poultry flock in Lambton County.
A quarantrine zone is in effect.
That brings the total of active cases in Ontario to 10 and euthanization of 1,107,000 birds.
The Canadian Food inspection Agency reported five cases of rabies in bats and one in a rrd fox during February.
That is more than half the Canadian total of 10.
Carney axes capital gains tax hike
Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government will cancel the proposal to hike to the capital gains tax.
"Cancelling the hike in capital gains tax will catalyze investment across our communities and incentivize builders, innovators and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses in Canada," Carney said in a statement.
Had the changes gone through, individuals with annual capital gains over $250,000 would have had two-thirds of those gains taxed. Two-thirds of all capital gains earned by corporations and trusts would also have been taxed.
The current tax rate is 50 per cent of the capital gains.
The statement also said the government will maintain its increase in the lifetime capital gains exemption limit to $1.25 million "on the sale of small business shares and farming and fishing property."
A federal judge has upheld Iowa’s law barring trespassers from using cameras or recording devices to investigate livestock facilities, dismissing a challenge from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and an Iowa citizens’ group.
Chief U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose ruled that the law serves Iowa’s interest in protecting property rights and privacy while allowing other legal means for advocacy. The decision follows a remand from the Eighth Circuit, which had upheld most of the law but allowed a challenge to the provision restricting the use of recording devices.
Plaintiffs argued the law suppresses whistleblowing and public discourse, while the court found it appropriately tailored to prevent unauthorized surveillance. The plaintiffs are considering an appeal.
Newly-appointed federal Agriculture Minister Kody Blois is kicking the Canadian Food Inspection Agency into action on long-standing import fraud with chicken imports falsely called spent fowl that skip out of tariffs.
David McGuinty is also involving the Canadian Border Services Agency he oversees.
Chicken Farmers of Canada has complained for years about the fraud and even showed the government how it could use DNA testing to stop it.
At times imports of spent fowl have exceeded the entire United States population of spent fowl.
The imports take Canadian markets that belong to Canadian producersl
“The issue of spent fowl misrepresentation is one that demands decisive action,” said Blois.
“This is fraud and it undermines consumers, our farmers, distorts our markets, and puts Canadian jobs at risk.,” Blois and McGuinty said in a joint news release.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has suspended the licence for Booby Food of Calgary.
The CFIA said the company failed to comply with standards for sanitation and prevention and for trading across provincial and national borders.
The company dries and freezes breast milk.