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Look for snow on cattle’s backs

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.


Posted by OFAC on January 18th, 2010 :: Filed under Animal care, Beef cattle, Canada
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The pig whisperer

Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.06.04

I’m playing a word game with Temple Grandin. It’s fascinating to hear her describe how her brain works.

Temple Grandin is a professor of livestock behaviour at Colorado State University. She also happens to be autistic.

You could make the case that she’s the world’s most highly functioning autistic person and I wouldn’t argue with that.


Posted by Admin on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Education and public awareness, Family vs factory farming, Farm life, Housing, Pork
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Prairie beef co-op gets “sustainable” certification

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.


Posted by Admin on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Beef cattle, Canada, Consumers
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FoodLogiQ has signed agreement with Canadian Cattlemen’s Association to provide value added traceability solution to its members

Source:Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, 19.dec.08

Calgary, AB — FoodLogiQ, the leading provider of On Demand food safety and traceability software, today announced that they have signed an agreement with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association to provide a value added traceability solution to its members.


Posted by Admin on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Beef cattle, Consumers, Food safety, Innovation and technology
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Safety first!

Safety comes first at a spanking new Kemptville cattle barn specializing in the delicate task of ‘romancing’ ornery bulls

BY TOM VAN DUSEN, Ottawa Sun, 2007.09.09

SAFETY OF THE HANDLERS
That’s got to be one of the main considerations when you’re building a new barn and pens to house cantankerous bulls at a semen extraction operation.

And safety was indeed worked into Eastern Breeders Inc.’s $800,000 “first of its kind” replacement sire barn officially opened last week.


Posted by Admin on July 19th, 2009 :: Filed under Beef cattle, Canada, Education and public awareness, Housing
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Addressing misconceptions about farming

By KIM HARLESS, February 26, 2007, Farmers Advance (OHIO)

The public has many misconceptions about the modern food system. Many of those misconceptions have been developed by authors with fine intentions, but a serious lack of understanding.

Unfortunately, once a so-called “fact” is in print, it is often repeated endlessly and used to build other “facts.”


Posted by Admin on July 19th, 2009 :: Filed under Beef cattle, Education and public awareness, Vegetarian
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Least Harm Principle suggests humans should eat beef, lamb, dairy, not a vegan diet.

By S.L. Davis, Department of Animal Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331.
Published in the Proceedings of the Third Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics, 2001, pp 440-450.

Introduction

Although the debate over the moral status of animals has been going on for thousands of years (Shapiro, 2000), there has been a resurgence of interest in this issue in the last quarter of the 20th century.


Posted by Admin on July 13th, 2009 :: Filed under Consumers, Education and public awareness, Vegan
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Life on the farm no simple affair – cowhands can’t rush at huge B.C. operation

The Edmonton Journal, Wed 09 Nov 2005, By David Finlayson

EDMONTON – Being the cow boss at Canada’s largest ranch has its challenges, especially when animals are scattered over 95 kilometres one way and 50 kilometres the other.

“We’re really no different than any other cow-calf operation. Things just take a little longer,” said Stan Jacobs, who has worked at Douglas Lake Cattle Company for 18 years.


Posted by Admin on June 10th, 2009 :: Filed under Beef cattle, Canada, Farm life
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Blood test may screen for mad cow disease

Source:
Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:36pm GMT
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Researchers in Canada have developed a blood test that can diagnose fatal chronic wasting disease in elk, and believe it may provide a cheap way to screen cattle for mad cow disease.


Posted by Admin on June 10th, 2009 :: Filed under Animal health, Beef cattle, Canada, Innovation and technology
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