Logical and fascinating information

Canadian lamb has boldly gone where no sheep has gone before. It’s on blockchain. Moving at warp speed, the Canadian Sheep Federation initiated a field trial in Nova Scotia in cooperation with SheepChain LLC of Wyoming. Factual data about processed Prince Edward Island lamb was digitized and put on the package label. The blockchain technology certifies the label’s accuracy, making the product very attractive to potential buyers. (See page 19.)

Possible solutions
Hay and forage in parts of the region suffered from this summer’s unexpected frost, sweltering humidity, and sporadic rainfall. Nova Scotia farmers got precipitation when it was needed. But Cedric MacLeod of the New Brunswick Cattle Producers (NBCP) estimates that beef farmers in that province “are seeing somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of their normal hay crop level this year.”

    People will be talking about the spring of 2018 for a long time to come. Floodwaters along the Saint John River dominated the news as they threatened agricultural operations, businesses, homes, and cottages. But the water has receded, assessments are underway on each farm (page 5), and beef herds should soon be grazing (page 51) on island community pastures.

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” So, how would Sherlock Holmes apply that theory to the massive bovine tuberculosis (TB) investigation that has been conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)? The case is certainly irregular enough to interest the fictional Baker Street detective.

    2018 is waiting in the wings for its cue. But it should not expect a standing ovation. Livestock farmers won’t be cheering when Health Canada implements additional regulations and restrictions on access to veterinary drugs, a move that is sure to increase production costs. Some medications are essential. Gwyneth Jones tells you why sheep breeders are relieved that Glanvac 6 vaccine has been approved.

    The losses to British Columbia’s cattle industry are staggering. More than two million acres – much of it grazing land – has gone up in flames. And more than 30,000 cattle have literally been in the line of fire. From all reports, the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association (BCCA) has worked around the clock organizing feed, pastures, transportation, and financial support. 

    There’s math, civics, science, and other subjects on the curriculum in this issue of Atlantic Beef & Sheep. You’ll find a lot of figures including the additional 20,000 head the Maritime Beef Sector Development and Expansion Strategy (page 16) plans for the region by 2027. The strategy addresses a number of key issues the beef industry will face over the next decade, including: price insurance, cost of production control, value added market access, and business continuance planning between farm generations.

    Atlantic Stockyards Limited has become a target of animal protectionist organizations. Animal Justice of British Columbia recently filed a complaint of animal abuse against the Murray Siding, Nova Scotia, company. Owner Sean Firth is frustrated but not lacking in resolve. Last fall when vegan members of N.S. Farm Animal Save appeared at Atlantic Stockyards with protest signs he patiently tried to educate them about how livestock auctions work. 

  Get a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and make yourself comfortable; it’s going to take you a while to read this issue of Atlantic Beef & Sheep. You’re headed to New Zealand with Maritime Beef Council General Manager Ellen Crane. She’ll talk a bit about the International Beef Alliance Conference (page 28) and show you some amazing photographs.

    “It’s one thing to go to (breed) meetings and move motions… but it is another to have people know what kind of cattle you have, and understand where you are coming from,” David Francis. Francis was talking about hosting the Maritime Charolais Picnic (page 46) at his Prince Edward Island farm. But the deep-rooted satisfaction about communication and camaraderie he spoke about can be found throughout this issue of Atlantic Beef & Sheep.

    Spring officially arrives in late March. But for many the season begins with the Maritime Beef Test Station Sale. The rafters in the Nappan sale barn hummed with excitement April 2 as a huge crowd exchanged news and told stories. It felt like a family reunion as friends and colleagues were greeted warmly with smiles, handshakes, and banter.

    The words “needs no introduction,” come to mind as we introduce our new Atlantic Beef & Sheep editor, Heather Jones, farm journalist and editor for many years of the Farm Focus newspaper. Please welcome Heather aboard. At the same time, our thanks to columnist and freelance writer Rachel Brighton who served as editor of ABS last year and who continues as a special assignment contributor to DvL Publishing Inc.   

    In the beef industry, where times are a-changing rapidly, Atlantic Beef and Sheep is proud to publish very helpful insight from two long-time columnists, Sean Firth and Charlie Gracey, who put fluctuating prices into perspective. On the pasture front, John Duynisveld shares lessons learned on his farm and George Fullerton files two stories detailing grazing strategies and pasture management practices on two New Brunswick farms. 

    In my interview with Dale MacAusland for the story on page 42, the managing director MacAusland’s Woollen Mills Ltd. in Bloomfield, Prince Edward Island, observed that sheep farmers in Atlantic Canada don’t have much interest in wool, especially when the price for lamb is good. That may be true. MacAusland was speaking from his own experience in sourcing wool directly from farmers for making blankets. 

Beef farmer Wayne McQuaid of South Melville, Prince Edward Island, raised a beef herd by the time he was 15 (see his story on page 40). Christie D’Aubin, 17, of Bridgetown, N.S., has a herd of five cows and may one day be selling beef to her parents (see the story starting page 24). Stories like these are not at all surprising to families who raise beef or breed sheep, but they sure are to me and to other people who are on the outside looking in.

After 25 years, isn’t it time Atlantic Canada’s only magazine published exclusively in support of the region’s beef (and more recently sheep) farmers had a new editor? I think so, which is why it is a great pleasure to introduce readers of this magazine to journalist Rachel Brighton, a native of Australia where sheep outnumber people three to one. We are fortunate to have a professional journalist of Brighton’s caliber taking on this important role.

    Many Nova Scotians were upset to the point of outrage before Thanksgiving when the provincial Turkey Farmers association used their established, and to now largely ignored, powers to deny a well-loved and respected – although unlicensed – abattoir owner in Pictou County the right to slaughter turkeys. Thousands have signed petitions decrying the call, for Gordon Fraser.

    Here’s an easy way to take the pulse of the cattle industry, at least at the cow and calf level. Try buying a fence stake after April. This spring they became harder and harder to find until by late May it was a scramble to find more than a dozen here and a half dozen there. By that time some manufacturers reported they were done for the year while others could not keep up with demand. It did not matter if the hunt was for hackmatack, spruce, or green, rot-in-a-year fir. 

    I dropped an email note to Les Halliday, Prince Edward Island’s beef specialist and regular contributor to Atlantic Beef and Sheep with his “Letter from the Island” column. He replied from Russia. Aha, hobnobbing with Vladimir Putin at the Sochi Olympics! No, Les wrote back, “Not Olympics. I am in Orenburg doing workshops on beef.”