DuPont Pioneer is building two new processing towers at its Chatham, Ontario, production location. The $19 million expansion will enable the company to help simplify the planting process for growers by providing integrated refuge hybrids. This production facility will condition, treat and blend seed to integrate refuge products with other high-performing brand products.

Grain farmers Michael Kalisvaart and his wife, Karen Jansen of Gibbons, Alberta, along with dairy farmers James and Amanda Kinsman of Berwick, Nova Scotia, are Canada’s 2013 Outstanding Young Farmers (OYF). These latest farm family winners were chosen from seven regional farm couples across Canada at the OYF annual national event held recently in Regina, Saskatchewan.

 
Francois Lefebvre
Genetic Counselor
Yamaska, Quebec
ABS Global Canada Inc.



   

This year’s record rains have caused different problems for hay producers than the droughts of years past. Unlike recent years, forage quality – not quantity – will be the big issue in meeting the nutritional needs of livestock. But how do you measure forage quality?

The week of Thanksgiving is traditionally a time of thanks and turning in the bulls. Cow calf operations with fall-calving herds that target a late August, early September beginning to the calving season will put the bulls with the fall-calving cows now.

Feeder cattle markets, after an impressive counter-seasonal run this fall, appear to be taking a bit of a break before Thanksgiving.  Feeder markets are holding mostly steady with slight gains still noted for lightweight stockers.  Some winter grazing demand continues in Oklahoma but highly variable weather which includes cold temperatures and wet conditions has made receiving cattle and maintaining cattle health a challenge the past week or so. 

USDA-NASS released the monthly Cattle on Feed report Nov. 22. The number of cattle and calves on feed for slaughter market in the U.S. for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 head or more totaled 10.607 million head on Nov. 1. The inventory was almost 6 percent below Nov. 1, 2012, and marks the 15th consecutive month with lower cattle on feed numbers than the previous year. And it was the lowest number of Nov. 1 cattle on feed since the data series began in 1996.