A long ride is less stressful Wednesday, August 10, 2011 Shorter truck trips are more stressful to market hogs than longer truck rides, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Animal Science.The reason? Pigs need time to recover from the stress of loading before they get stressed again when they disembark, says Prof. Michael Ellis, at the University of Illinois's Urbana-Champaign campus.Another stress factor is floor space. Overcrowding is stressful, but pigs that have too much space are thrown around as the livestock truck moves. University researchers found that U.S. market pigs on average require five square feet each.Co-author of the study with Ellis was Bradley Wolter, chief operating officer of the Maschhoffs packing company in Carlyle, Ill. Wolter says working with Ellis allowed the company to reduce pig losses due to transportation and handling by more than one percentage point in a system that was already well managed and where less than half a per cent of pigs died because of movement and handling. BP Another sign of bacon's popularity: clogged drains 'Welfarists' pressure supermarkets
Pork producers applaud long-awaited EPA data decision Friday, November 6, 2026 For more than 20 years, hog and other livestock farmers have lived with uncertainty over what new federal permitting or reporting requirements could result from an emissions study conducted nearly two decades ago. In a regulatory win for pork producers and other farmers, the Environmental... Read this article online
Ag in the House: Oct. 26 – 30 Friday, November 6, 2026 On Oct. 26, Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald fielded a question from a fellow Liberal MP about how the federal government is supporting food security across Canada. Chi Nguyen, the Ontario MP for Spadina—Harbourfront, asked the minister to share how the government is going to invest... Read this article online
What is Struvite? Could it Help Farmers Stretch Phosphorus and Reduce Runoff Friday, November 6, 2026 Canadian researchers are exploring whether a fertilizer recovered from wastewater could become part of a more sustainable approach to phosphorus management on farms. Research from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) indicates that struvite, when used alongside conventional... Read this article online
NASA Uses Satellite Imagery to Assess Ukraine Harvests Friday, November 6, 2026 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 disrupted agricultural production and the country’s ability to monitor crop conditions. With winter wheat and rapeseed already planted before the conflict began, questions emerged about how much farmland farmers could access and... Read this article online
Kalon Armstrong joins Nofence as managing director for Canada Friday, November 6, 2026 Nofence has brought in an agtech professional with more than a decade of experience to lead its commercial launch in Canada. Kalon Armstrong, a co-founder of Enriched Ag, an Alberta-based data insight company focused on ranching and grazing management, is Nofence’s managing director for... Read this article online