Wayne Black's Page

This week is National 4-H Week in Canada.

Thousands of kids across Canada benefit from 4-H programming each year. Ben Graham, chair of the Canadian 4-H Foundation says 4-H has an enormous impact on our youth. "It's about team building, learning parliamentary procedure, how you run a meeting, and how to public speak. It's about how to manage projects, whether it's computers or dogs - canine, whether it's beef cattle. It's a real diverse opportunity for kids to learn skills that help them become better leaders and contributors to their community." Beyond Ready is this year's theme for National 4-H Week. Graham notes 4-H Canada has launched a major fundraising campaign this year "Tomorrow needs 4-H, Today 4-H needs you." He says funding changes from the Federal and in some cases Provincial governments has left the organization looking for help in order to keep up the quality of programming they offer to youth. 'I think the opportunity for 4H just to create better humans is beyond belief and that's why you know, Canada need

September storms wreak havoc in the Prairies

The Canadian Crop Hail Association member companies are investigating 630 claims of crop damage from isolated storms that hit farms across Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan during the week of September 16-22. Rodney Schoettler of Saskatchewan Municipal Hail Insurance noted that September brought an unexpected surge in claims: He says the claim count is much higher than typical [for this time of year] and the severity of losses at this stage is costly to producers and insurers. In Saskatchewan storms resulted in crop damage to Canola, Flax, Mustard, Barley, Corn, Wheat in the Bienfait, Rokeby, Saltcoats, Fleming, Edgeley, Ebenezer, Homefield, Kornau, Richardson, McLean, Instow, Neidpath, Grand Coulee, Archydal, Tuxford, Marquis, Chamberlin, Aylesbury, Kindersley, North Battleford, Davidson, Mosse Jaw, Regina, Shaunavon, Swift Current, Yorkton, Melville, Moosomin, Estevan, Alameda, Mortlach, Young, Herbert, Carnduff, Canora Alberta Crops damage was reported in Barley, Canola, Corn,

Why Are You So Lame? Analyzing Lameness in Cattle

Cattle get lame for a lot of reasons, including injury, poor conformation, grain overload, mycotoxins (e.g., ergot) and bacterial infection. Different types of lameness need to be treated differently. Antibiotic treatment only helps if a bacterial infection is involved. Lameness is the second leading reason (behind bovine respiratory disease) that feedlot cattle are pulled and given antibiotics. Lame cattle eat less, grow more slowly and less efficiently, may be shipped early and often don’t grade as well. These add up to a significant economic cost. When cattle get lame late in the feeding period, pre-slaughter withdrawal times limit the number of antibiotic treatment options. A team of Canadian researchers led by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Karen Schwartzkopf-Genswein recently published a review of large-scale studies of foot-related lameness in feedlot cattle (A Review of Foot Related Lameness in Feedlot Cattle; What They Did These researchers reviewed studies of infectiou

Ottawa invests more money in organic research

The Federal government has announced over $6.8 million over five years for the Organic Science Cluster is geared to research and advancing sustainable practices. 

Chicken Farmers of Ontario and Maple Leaf Foods Inc. Announce Partnership to Provide Ontario Grown Chicken to Ontario Food Banks

Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO) and Maple Leaf Foods Inc., one of Canada's leading producers of value added prepared meats and poultry products, formally announced their partnership to provide Ontario's food banks with a steady supply of healthy, high quality, locally-grown chicken