This is a peace of info I thought you might find interesting. US troops are now becoming educated in agriculture before being deployed to Afghanistan. At a university farm in California's crop-abundant Central Valley, a group of U.S. Marines trudged through muddy fields on Monday to learn how to tend pomegranate trees, a crop popular in war-torn Afghanistan. During a week's training, Marines will learn first-hand and in the classroom about irrigation practices, soil salinity, plant recognition and livestock care, among other topics. Kadon helped create the training after doing intelligence work in Iraq and after working in civil affairs in Afghanistan. After researching this I though perhaps everyone should have a mandatory week training to educate people who are unaware of agriculture in Canada. I wonder what your thoughts are on what people might learn from this experience and how it would affect farm life in Canada. This is a peace of info I thought you might find interesting. US troops are now becoming educated in agriculture before being deployed to Afghanistan. At a university farm in California's crop-abundant Central Valley, a group of U.S. Marines trudged through muddy fields on Monday to learn how to tend pomegranate trees, a crop popular in war-torn Afghanistan. During a week's training, Marines will learn first-hand and in the classroom about irrigation practices, soil salinity, plant recognition and livestock care, among other topics. Kadon helped create the training after doing intelligence work in Iraq and after working in civil affairs in Afghanistan. After researching this I though perhaps everyone should have a mandatory week training to educate people who are unaware of agriculture in Canada. I wonder what your thoughts are on what people might learn from this experience and how it would affect farm life in Canada. A Canadian pig genetics company with offices in Ontario and Manitoba are finding new opportunities in Russia. When pig markets are not doing well in Canada companies dealing with pigs must look else were, Russia. Genesus Inc. is partnering with Kubangsky Bacon, a Russian company, to market swine genetics within Russia. Once in full swing, the venture is expected to produce 40,000 sows per year! This is very good considering it cost $500 dollars to ship a pig to Russia from Canada. Genesus will operate the farm, run the genetic program and market the genetics within Russia. The nice part about a Canadian company running the operation is that they can continue to support Agriculture here. Apparently they have been in talks with a feed company in Ontario. The price of a slaughter pig is “a little over $300 a pig,” Long says. “It’s probably the best place in the world today to invest in swine.” 
A boy that lives on a farm is awakened by his mother early in the morning on the weekend. She tells him he won't get breakfast until he does his chores. One of his chores involves feeding all the animals. While he was feeding the animals he takes out his aggression on some of them. He kicks a chicken, a cow, and a pig. When he finished his chores his mother just gives him a bowl of dry cereal. When he asks why, his mother tells him that he didn't get any milk because he kicked the cow. He didn't get any eggs because he kicked the chicken and he didn't get bacon because he kicked the pig. Right then his father comes in and kicks the cat. The boy looks at his mother and says "Would you like to tell him or should I?"
I got a good laugh and I hope you do too.
Today I am going to talk about mans best friend, and no I am not talking about the TV or Facebook. I am talking about the farm dog. It as become apparent on our operation that things would be far tougher to get done with out the help of our trusty side kick the Border Collie, in fact my great grand father would say "having a good dog is like having two good men". I know that with the help of our dogs it is much easier to do the little things like turning cattle into the right gate. Below is a video about border collies just incase you might like to find out some interesting info.
I think it is a testament to my great grand father dog, Roy he asked for him to be used in the building of his statue. Now for the people who know me, they may be thinking of my slightly shortened finger as per usual comes up in a many conversations. But today I am going to talk about steaks you can buy at the butcher.
Recently I was out for dinner with some friends and this question came up,“What do you think is the best cut of beef? And why?”
Simply put we need understand that beef is muscle tissue. As a result, regularly used muscles will result in tougher meat, while lesser used muscles will result in tender meat. This doesn’t mean that the less tender cuts aren’t worth eating – au contraire – some of the tastiest cuts come from the tougher muscles. My favorite cut is a tenderloin, below is a chart to help you get a better understanding of the cuts and maybe assist you in finding your new favorite cut.Common Cuts | Location | Tenderness |
Blade Steaks or Roast | Chuck | Medium Tender, but like butter when braised. |
Flank Steak | Flank | Less Tender, but can be great when marinated or slowly cooked |
Eye of Round & Sirloin Tip Steaks | Hip | Medium Tender, perfect for fast grilling or frying; inexpensive cuts |
Tenderloin Steak & New York Striploin | Loin | Tender - the most tender cuts of beef |
Rib Eye Steak | Rib | Tender - slightly less tender than Tenderloin or NY, but more flavourful |
Top Sirloin | Sirloin | Tender - a great steak; much less expensive than cuts from the Loin and Rib but still tender and flavourful |
| Shank | Shank | Less Tender, great for braising. Try using beef shanks for a larger and beefier version of osso buco. |
Of the many concerning developments in food and agriculture over recent years, one stands out as being particularly perplexing and disturbing. It is the widespread disappearance of honey bee colonies throughout the North America that has come to be known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Some beekeepers began to report unusually high losses of 30-90 percent of their hives. As many as 50 percent of all affected colonies demonstrated symptoms inconsistent with any known causes of honeybee death: sudden loss of a colony’s worker bee population with very few dead bees found near the colony. The queen and brood (young) remained, and the colonies had relatively abundant honey and pollen reserves. But hives cannot sustain themselves without worker bees and would eventually die. This combination of events resulting in the loss of a bee colony has been called Colony Collapse Disorder. Certain pesticides are harmful to bees. That’s why we require instructions for protecting bees on the labels of pesticides that are known to be particularly harmful to bees. This is one of many reasons why everyone must read and follow pesticide label instructions.
It has not been said that is is directly related to pesticides however, it shows us how delicate our ecosystems are and knowing how important bees are to our crops we must do everything we can to prevent the spread of CCD.
It has ruined livestock farmers and unleashed famines that in turn have fuelled turbulence and war.
Stamping it out, a quest that can be traced back to 1920, brought together the World Organisation for Animal Health, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and national veterinary agencies. Their prime weapons have been vaccines as well as routine surveillance, in which outbreaks are swiftly spotted by veterinarians and then circumscribed.
What is this you are probably thinking, well its rinderpest, also called cattle plague. Highly contagious and often fatal among bovine species but not infectious for humans, the rinderpest virus has a destructive history going back two thousand years.
Ann Tutwiler, said "We have a tremendous success that we can count today. It's a success that's born of cooperation, collaboration and partnership and most particularly knowledge,"
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| We can make sure this doesn't happen again. |