The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America is urging the American government to continue its fight to maintain country of origin labelling in the country.

Last fall, Canada launched a World Trade Organization challenge of the American meat labelling restrictions. That challenge was blocked by the U.S.

Now, R-CALF has listed reasons why they claim Canada has an unfair advantage with the COOL system.

COOL forces American packers, feedlots and processors to keep strict records of where the meat was raised so retailers can mark the packages with an appropriate label. This has forced many American meatpacking companies to stop or limit buying Canadian cattle due to the increased cost of keeping the animals and meat segregated. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association estimates the cost to the beef industry so far is around $250 million.

Late last week, R-CALF announced it sent a letter to the secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture and the U.S. trade representative for the country, claiming Canada should be considered in violation of the World Trade Organization agreement since Canadian cattle and beef sectors receive government subsidies to penetrate the U.S. market.

“We believe Canada’s subsidies on beef and cattle constitute an artificial propping-up of a Canadian cattle industry that is unsustainable at its present size but for those government subsidies," says Bill Bullard, R-CALF's CEO in a news release. "Further we believe that Canada’s subsidies are inconsistent with the very World Trade Organization agreements that Canada claims the U.S. has violated vis-à-vis COOL.”

He says the United States trade representative and agriculture department "should not tolerate the Canada’s ongoing practice of using the Canadian treasury to manipulate the U.S. cattle market by subsidizing Canadian cattle supplies and beef production at levels above what a competitive market can support."

"This practice is particularly appalling given the Government of Canada is trying to undermine the United States’ constitutionally passed COOL law… while simultaneously using its treasury to out-compete independent U.S. cattle producers," Bullard says, adding the law is widely supported by U.S. cattle producers and consumers.

He says beef prices in the U.S. are depressed because "Canada is unjustly and artificially propping-up its cattle supplies beyond what the available market can bear."

In its letter to government officials, R-CALF lists programs like the Canadian Income Stabilization program and several programs that date back to when the BSE crisis began.

The group says the subsidies "warrant immediate corrective action" by U.S. trade representative and agriculture departments to "protect the hundreds of thousands of remaining independent U.S. cattle produces whose markets are being severely depressed by Canada’s artificial maintenance of excessive cattle supplies."

“Despite the worldwide reduction in demand for Canadian cattle and beef due to its significant problems with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Canada continues to subsidize its cattle industry, thereby promoting excessive cattle supplies that must be unloaded or dumped into export markets,” Bullard says.

“Canada is particularly reliant on the U.S. market to unload or dump its excess supplies and Canada is now trying to further penetrate the U.S. market by destroying COOL -- an action that would allow Canada to effectively hide from U.S. consumers the origin of beef derived from Canadian cattle.”

The full text of R-CALF's letter to government officials, including a list of the subsidies they claim give Canadian beef producers an unfair advantage, is at http://www.r-calfusa.com/news_releases/2010/100128-canada.htm.

Results from the third round of the Hog Farm Transition Program are out, and it shows far more interest by producers to empty their barns than in the funding provided for making that move.

Administered by the Canadian Pork Council on behalf of the federal government, the HFTP has a total of $75 million dollars. It's designed to help producers by paying them to set aside all hog production on their operations for at least three years. The money is awarded in stages through a tendering process.

In the latest round, $25.23 million will be delivered to 145 bidders. The lowest bids were accepted first followed by higher bids until the $25 million for the round was fully committed. 

In total 38,572 sows, 76,585 weaners under 30 kilograms and 149,735 hogs over 31 kilograms are being removed from the Canadian herd.

Karl Kynoch, chairperson of the Manitoba Pork Council, says the program is meeting the goal of reducing the number of hogs across the country.

Unfortunately, Americans producers aren't reducing at the same rate, which is one of the reasons hog markets have not responded more positively.

"Probably the biggest concern to us is the fact when you go into the U.S., the sow numbers haven’t been dropping at all," Kynoch says.

"You know we could remove close to half our sows in Canada and we're still a small number compared to the U.S. You've got to remember we used to produce over 30 million hogs where as the U.S. produces 130 million."

The HFTP awarded tenders that ranged from $584 per animal unit equivalent to a high of $999, with an average tender value of $925.

"That's probably one of the things producers haven't liked about the program," Kynoch says. "They appreciate there's something there, yet it has put producer against producer to have to bid on this program."

He also would have liked more money in the program. This latest round of tendering attracted 403 bids -- two and a half times more than what was awarded and a sign of the interest by producers to exit the industry.

"Every round of tenders has had quite a few extra applicants for the amount of money that's been available. That's one thing we've always been saying to the government, that the $75 million that's been put up needs to be expanded, that there won't be enough there for the amount of producers that will be interested."

The HFTP now moves into its fourth and final round, estimated to have about $14 million available. Producers have until Feb. 17 to submit forms. Results will be announced on March 10.

"It's really going to be a challenge and stressful on some producers to know where to bid. Some of them have simply run out of money to keep operating so this might be their only choice," Kynoch says.

The Canadian flax industry concludes the best way to work to eliminate the problem of genetically modified contaminated flax is with certified seed.

"A new protocol or what the trade is calling a triffid stewardship program has been put in place," says Quinton Stewart, Viterra's merchandiser of flax and soybeans, during an industry conference call earlier this week.

"All seeds going into ground must be tested and all seed destined for the European market specifically will be required to be seeded with certified seed," Stewart says.

As part of the protocol, certified seed will have to be tested and declared free of triffid before sold to producers. When the crop is harvested in the fall, it will be tested again for genetic modification before being approved for export to the European Union.

The new protocol is in response to trace amounts of a genetically modified flax variety, called CDC triffid, in an export shipment to Europe last summer. The EU has zero tolerance for genetically modified foods. The variety was developed in the late 1990s but was never commercially introduced to growers. Investigations are underway to determine the how the variety turned up in the current flax supply.

The impact of the European ban has had a huge impact on the Canadian flax industry. Shipments to the EU have been restricted ever since the trace levels of GM material were found. Over 70 per cent of Canadian flax exports are destined for that market.

"This is a necessary step that needs to be done to restore confidence in the market and is an economically feasible way of ensuring the reliability of the testing and sampling being done," Stewart says.

Some producers have expressed concern that they will be forced to purchase certified seed.

"We hope that seed growers understand that taking advantage of this protocol, vis-à-vis higher prices, (for certified flax seed) would not be a good public relations gesture," says David Sefton, a Broadview, Sask., grower and director with SaskFlax.

During the conference call, it was also stressed that all efforts will be made to find markets for growers with flax found to have minute traces of GM material.

"The Flax Council of Canada has put in place some people who will contact those that have positive results directly, to help them market their flax at a fair and reasonable price," Sefton says.

About 2,500 flax samples have been tested for the presence of this GM variety and industry officials say "about nine per cent of those samples have tested positive for triffid." However, the contamination is at very low levels with the highest concentrations at 0.1 per cent. There is also no hot spot for the problem as triffid has been found in samples from across the Prairies.

Thirty New Brunswick poultry workers will lose their jobs again this week as the nasty interprovincial chicken war between corporate rivals enters a decisive stage.

“We have no choice,” says Yves Landry, manager of Nadeau Poultry Farms about the layoffs at the company’s slaughtering facility in St. Francois de Madawaska. 

The reason, he adds, is the New Brunswick government’s announcement a week ago that it will not uphold Bill 81. 

Passed just weeks ago, the ministerial order requires New Brunswick chicken producers to process their birds at the Nadeau facility, a subsidiary of Ontario’ Maple Lodge.

It was intended to stop Sunnymel -- the name given to a 2008 partnership between Westco, one of the largest poultry producers in Canada, and Montreal-based pork and poultry giant Olymel -- from shipping New Brunswick raised chickens to an Olymel slaughterhouse in Berthierville, Que.

Those shipments began last summer after Maple Lodge again rejected the partners’ insistent demands that it sell them the slaughterhouse.

The partners say they want to consolidate production, slaughtering, cutting and deboning operations in order to better serve the Maritimes market.

Westco’s birds, and those of other companies it controls, including Dynaco and Acadia, represent roughly 75 per cent of total chicken production in New Brunswick and around 50 per cent of the 271,000 birds processed at the Nadeau facility, which also processes chickens from Nova Scotia.

Westco and Olymel also announced plans to jointly build a $30-million slaughterhouse in N.B. by the end of 2010. While construction was underway, the companies said they would ship their N.B. birds to Olymel’s Quebec plant.

A federal competition bureau ruling gave Westco the green light to sell its birds to the buyer of its choosing, and the New Brunswick Court of Appeal ruled the chickens could be sent outside the province.

Those shipments, however, led to a brief standoff at the Nadeau facility in September when workers blocked Quebec-bound trucks from leaving.

It also led to 165 layoffs at the slaughterhouse.

The New Brunswick government responded last month with Bill 81. However Sunnymel immediately challenged the order in court and continued to send its chickens to Quebec.

“It’s clear that the move is illegal,” says Richard Vigneault, Olymel spokesperson. “We’ve won a lot of decisions on this matter.”

Rather than fighting to uphold the bill, the government is again calling on both sides to participate in mediated talks.

According to Landry, Nadeau will have to fire 30 employees; the employees who were recently hired back in the hope the bill would increase production at the plant.

During an interview, Landry also states that Maple Lodge sent an official letter to Sunnymel this week, agreeing to a meeting.

“We’re not for sale,” he says.  “But we’re being forced to negotiate.”

Organic producers in British Columbia are receiving funding to help develop their sector.

The $900,000 from the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program will allow producers to continue their Organic Sector Development Program through 2013.

The province has about 650 organic growers certified through Certified Organic Associations of British Columbia and about 100 more certified through other bodies. Many more B.C. growers are either in transition to organic or uncertified organic producers.

Federal officials call organics an “important niche,” and say the role of government "is to ensure you growers and processors can continue to do what you do best.”

The OSDP started about 10 years ago with $5 million dollars in provincial funding. This new funding will help the program continue for at least another three years and work towards its goals:

- increasing sector capacity
- building confidence in certified organic systems and products
- promoting environmental stewardship
- advancing organic research and innovation
- strengthening organics infrastructure

Expected projects include creating a resource directory for growers, designing an environmental assessment instrument for certification and educational materials and workshops to encourage producers to transition to organics.

COABC president Brad Reid says the OSDP goals have not changed, although the new federal funding will require at least 50 per cent matching industry contributions. The previous program allowed growers to access funds with as little as a 20 per cent contribution.

 “This money is going to the farmers, the people on the ground,” Reid says. “From field to plate, these funds will aid with organic research and innovation, increase the capacity of the organic sector and ensure continued confidence in B.C. certified organic products.”

IAF chair Stuart Wilson notes British Columbia consumer demand for organic products continues to increase exponentially, saying a 2008 Ipsos Reid study commissioned by IAF found two-thirds of British Columbians willing to pay at least a little more for certified organic food.

“With this funding, organic producers will be better positioned to take advantage of these opportunities.”

Alberta insect populations are forecast to be generally lower in 2010, says Scott Meers.

However, the insect management specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development warns producers that some pests still have the potential to cause significant problems.

Extreme hot spots exist for potential grasshopper outbreaks in the Peace region and the area northwest of Edmonton. Forecasts show parts of the Special Areas and south of Lethbridge could also be at risk.

Meers notes the warm, dry conditions experienced last fall allowed more time for egg laying, boosting the chances of increased infestations this year.

The latest survey indicates the cabbage seedpod weevil has not expanded its range but remains a threat in areas south of Highway 1. The report shows a higher population in 2009, which generally indicates the potential to result in economically damaging levels in the next growing season.   

Meers cautions producers in Wheatland County of a dramatic increase in weevil levels in 2009 and the need to scout their fields in 2010.

Wheat stem sawfly levels have decreased from prior years, but pockets were found around Foremost, Bow Island and south of Medicine Hat in 2009.

Meers notes these populations are high enough to cause significant damage if conditions are favourable. He says experience shows hot spots may still exist in areas of low risk so producers should carefully monitor their fields.

A relatively new pest, the cereal leaf beetle, has been found around Lethbridge. According to Meers the beetle is established and increasing, with the potential to reach damaging levels in winter wheat and barley.

To access the 2010 forecast maps and commentary for these and other pests, go to www.agriculture.alberta.ca and look under maps and multimedia.

A tiny niche crop produced in southeast Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan is getting noticed.

Safflower, now grown for the birdseed market, is poised to become an important source of human insulin for use in the treatment of diabetes.

Brian Otto, a southern Alberta grain and pulse grower and member of the Alberta Safflower Association, has been growing about 500 acres of safflower for the birdseed market as a rotation crop. He says the Canadian growing season isn’t long enough to grow safflower for the crushing market, adding that India is currently the top producer of safflower for cooking oil. 

Still, Otto is optimistic a new transgenic safflower variety developed by the plant biotechnology company SemBioSys Genetics Inc. to facilitate the production of human insulin will provide Canadian growers with a new niche market.

“It’s a great project and another innovative market for farmers. Any addition to our toolbox of crops improves the bottom line,” he says. 

The current Canadian safflower export market value, according to Statistics Canada, is roughly $5.5 million.

According to Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada, safflower has a deep root system and prefers dryer soils. Any increase in safflower acreages would displace durum and pulse crops, AAFC states. SemBioSys estimates it will take about 1,500 acres of safflower to produce one tonne of insulin annually.

A spokesperson for SemBioSys says it will be a few more years before any large scale production of insulin from transgenic safflower plants will get underway. It’s been over a decade since Maurice Moloney, company founder and chief scientific officer started the research. Moloney is no stranger to breaking research in oilseeds -- he's the scientist who developed the first transgenetic oilseed plants using canola.

The insulin project is now in clinical trials and the company is searching for new partners for manufacturing and commercializing the product. They’ve not yet determined what licensing agreements they’ll present to growers.

Otto, who has worked with test plots before, says he expects the company to have stringent growing parameters and breeders’ rights contracts. He indicates that even now he’s required to maintain a buffer between his safflower crop and the SemBioSys fields. The company says Canadian regulations stipulate buffers of 1,600 metres between transgenic and non-transgenic safflower fields and 50 metres between transgenic safflower fields and other crops.

SemBioSys is currently growing safflowers for research in Alberta, Washington State, and in the opposing season, in Chile, South America.

Renewable fuels are the focus of a new program available to agriculture producers in Prince Edward Island.

A $9.9 million fund has been established to help improve producers' profitability and advance environmental sustainability, it states in a new release from the federal government.

A total of $5.9 million will go to two projects -- a renewable energy initiative that will promote the use of agriculture-based renewable energy sources and equipment and $1.7 million for the BioEconomy crop initiative. The initiative will evaluate economic and environmental benefits of crops such as fall rye, perennial grasses and hybrid willows to plant and harvest for energy generation.

The balance of the funding comes from the provincial government with investments of $2.8 million in the renewable energy initiative and $1.2 million in the BioEconomy crop initiative.

The market for edible peas took a tumble over the past two weeks.

There are reports of a sudden slump in Prairie cash prices of about 30 to 50 cents a bushel as demand has backed off.

Currently, bids are indicated at $5 a bushel, picked up on farm, or $5.50 a bushel, delivered plant, for February-March in Saskatchewan -- but there are very few buyers looking to even do this at this time.

Green peas are indicated at $6.50 a bushel, freight on board farm, or $7 a bushel, delivered plant, for February-March movement as well.

There is little demand, and buyers are not looking for much product right now.

On new crop, here too, not much if anything for fall delivered bids at this time for any type of pea.

There has been a sense of disappointment with recent India tender results, and after cleaning up residual Vancouver cash length at lower replacement price levels to countries such as Cuba, it would appear prices have been pushed down in the search for fresh demand. Perhaps too, it's an effort to stymie producer interest in moving product into the cash market.

At early January, Vancouver-based cash bids of US $280-285 a tonne have since eroded, especially over the past week, to as low as US $250-255 a tonne offered.

Some softness in the Canadian dollar has blunted the full negative impact, at least to some small degree, but US $255 a tonne at Vancouver represents $5.50 a bushel in southwestern Saskatchewan. But that’s only what the seller is “offering” -- few buyers stepping up at this time.

Obviously this is not a comfortable marketing position for growers to be in.

No real transparent export buyer bids out there other than India, which is currently bid below the market, so market activity is stalled again. India so far this year has not been the aggressive buyer they were the past two marketing years, and there’s no immediate indication that sorry situation is about to change.

The addition of the generally depressed nature of grain markets over much of the past month also plays into the bearish views.

So then, cash market sell targets are eroding this year from $7 to $6.50 to now $6 a bushel -- and even that may be a hard target to hit again given large Prairie availability and a new sense of willingness by producers to sell at that level.

A weaker chickpea market (chana) in India is limiting importer bids for Canadian peas (yellows, a substitutable product).

A bearish tone in grain markets generally and disappointing results from a declining trend in Vancouver-based bid/offers has the edible pea trade hindered.

For now, Canada does not have significant supplier export competition in peas. That will change starting later this spring and into the summer months as French, Ukrainian and American supplies come available. At that time, we could see sub-$5 a bushel yellows if production threats do not materialize.

So then, we’ll be watching near-term market developments with heightened interest. A move back to $6 a bushel yellows in Saskatchewan is looking to be a definite sell. But since that is a big, round target many growers will be looking at -- might move on any rally just below there.

Mike Jubinville of Pro Farmer Canada offers information on commodity markets and marketing strategies. Call 204-654-4290 or visit www.pfcanada.com to find out more about his services.