At Farm Animal Councils across Canada, we frequently get calls from people driving by farm properties asking questions about the farm animals they see living in the fields. One common theme of questions we receive this time of the year is about animal housing in the winter – specifically, can cattle live outdoors in the winter. This article does a great job of answering that question – OFAC

Chatham Daily News, Friday, January 15

Look for snow on cattle’s backs
Posted By KIM COOPER
Posted 8 hours ago
 
As the winter season is here in Chatham-Kent, let’s look at cattle being left outside during these cold months. For this article, the words cattle, cows, herd, and livestock all mean the same thing. I would like to thank Mike and Joanne Buis of Buis Beef here in Chatham-Kent for their assistance in writing this article.

Like all mammals, cows are warm-blooded and need to maintain a constant core body temperature. Special management and planning is required for cattle to graze outdoors in the winter. For this to be successful, producers select the proper breed of cattle and create the proper conditions for the winter season.

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Posted by OFAC on January 18th, 2010 :: Filed under Animal care, Beef cattle, Canada
Tags :: animal care, beef, Farmers, Winter care

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January 6, 2010 – Happy New Year to the readers of this blog. This article was printed in the Toronto Star over the holiday season and we think this columnist got the issue exactly right. Farm animals aren’t pets and they definitely aren’t 4-legged people. And, with only 1 in every 46 Canadians now actively farming, there is a huge disconnect between farmers and consumers. Enjoy the read – OFAC

The annoying tendency to anthropomorphize animals is likely from our lost connection to rural life

by Connie Woodcock, Out There

Toronto Sun, December 20, 2009

When I was a little girl, I fell in love with a series of books about a pig named Freddy and his barnyard friends on the Bean farm in New York State.

I read every one of the 26 books available in my library over and over. I can remember peering at a New York road map in search of fictional Centerboro, the town supposedly nearest Freddy and his friends.

Written between the 1920s and 1950s, the Freddy books disappeared for a while but they were republished a few years ago and there’s even an association called The Friends of Freddy with its own website. I’ve bought several Freddy reprints and reread them still.

I mention this because much as I loved Freddy, Mrs, Wiggins the cow, Hank the horse with rheumatism in his hind leg, and Charles the henpecked rooster, we all grow up and realize there’s no such thing as a talking animal. At least, most of us do.

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Posted by OFAC on January 6th, 2010 :: Filed under Activism, Canada, Consumers, Education and public awareness, Farm life, Sustainability of the family farm
Tags :: activists, animal care, animal welfare, Canada, Consumers, Farmers, misconceptions, PETA

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December 24, 2009 – In the spirit of Christmas, we don’t think this article could say it any better. The author, Jeanine Moyer, was raised on an Ontario farm and is one of the winners of the Guelph Mercury Christmas story contest. We think Jeanine captured the essence, exactly, of Christmas on a Canadian livestock farm. Merry Christmas to all. – OFAC

Farm families have special Christmas traditions
 GuelphMercury.com – News – December 21, 2009

Christmas is the holiday for traditions. Growing up, we knew our family had several Christmas traditions such as leaving milk and cookies out for Santa, hanging stockings and attending church on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t until we were in our early teens that my siblings and I began to understand just how different our family was and that our Christmas traditions were different from most.

Growing up as the seventh generation on our family farm, my sisters, brother and I knew we were different from most families, and for some reason it always seemed most apparent at Christmastime.

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Posted by OFAC on December 24th, 2009 :: Filed under Beef cattle, Farm life, Sustainability of the family farm
Tags :: animal care, animals, Canada, Farmers

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BC egg farmers care for the right reasons. There is more to caring for hens than meets the eye.

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Posted by BCFACC on October 16th, 2009 :: Filed under Animal health, Education and public awareness, Poultry, eggs
Tags :: animal care, chicken, education, eggs, Farmers, free range, Poultry

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Manitoba Co-operator, 2/14/2009

A ranchers’ beef co-operative in Alberta and Saskatchewan has picked up certification from a U.S. group for meeting a long list of social and environmental standards for their product.

Food Alliance Certification Co-operative, based in Portland, Ore., has given Prairie Heritage Producers its certification for “sustainably-produced” beef. Prairie Heritage becomes the first company in Canada to meet Food Alliance standards, the U.S. group said Friday.

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Posted by Admin on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Beef cattle, Canada, Consumers
Tags :: animal care, beef, Canada, environment, Farmers, humane treatment, sustainability, water conservation

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Fairview Post
Posted By Chris Zwick
November 12, 2008

Livestock haulers and handlers across the country will soon require certification to transport livestock, but luckily enough the Fairview college campus is offering a one-day Certified Livestock Transport training program on Nov. 15.

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Posted by Admin on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Regulations, Transportation
Tags :: animal care, education, livestock, regulation, Transportation

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By Mannix Porterfield, THE REGISTER-HERALD (BECKLEY, W.V.)
Aug 16/06

FAIRLEA, W.Va.— Go back in time, say a century or so, even before the iron horse made its debut, and fetch a poultry farmer, pluck him off his Currier and Ives setting, then escort him into a modern chicken barn.

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Posted by Admin on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Innovation and technology, Poultry
Tags :: animal care, education, Farmers, food, Poultry

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OTTAWA, Aug. 22 /CNW Telbec/ – Working in one of the country’s most dynamic agriculture industries, Canada’s egg farmers have had little time to rest. Just ask Laurent Souligny, 64, a proud egg farmer and chairman of the national egg farmers’ organization, Egg Farmers of Canada (EFC).

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Posted by Admin on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Animal health, Canada, Poultry
Tags :: agriculture, animal care, Biosecurity, Canada, eggs, Farmers, food, Housing, misconceptions, Poultry

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Crystal Mackay, Ontario Farm Animal Council, Guelph; The Hamilton Spectator, 2007.01.17; Letter to the Editor

Re: ‘Paralyzed by choice at the egg cooler’ (Opinion, Jan. 12)

We’re fortunate to live in a country with so many food choices, in a world where many have little food at all. But many of the statements in the article on eggs need some perspective from farmers.

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Posted by Admin on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Family vs factory farming, Housing, Letters to the Editor, Poultry
Tags :: activists, animal care, Consumers, eggs, Farmers, food, Poultry

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Vancouver Sun, 2005.08.19, Letter to the Editor

Re: Spin, not reform: The Canadian livestock industry goes for public
relations, Issues & Ideas, Aug. 18

On behalf of Canadian hog producers, I take great exception to Stephanie Brown and John Youngman’s comments regarding our industry’s efforts in animal care.

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Posted by Admin on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Letters to the Editor, Pork
Tags :: animal care, Canada, Farmers, pigs, Pork

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