(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Agriculture Roundup

Agriculture Roundup for Thursday July 11, 2019

Jul 11, 2019 | 10:37 AM

Ottawa is putting money on the table for cattle producers.

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said there will be $8.3 million dollars given to marketing agency Canada Beef.

The goal is to get new export markets.

The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association CEO Ryder Lee said it’s better for long-term finances and Japan and South Korea are good partners to start with.

The money comes after China banned all Canadian beef shipments in June.

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The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association said it met with the federal agriculture and international trade ministers about the suspension of Canadian meat export certificates to China.

Ottawa said it continues to investigate the fraudulent export certificates for Canadian pork which led to the suspension.

The government has been in contact with Chinese officials to resolve the technical issue.

It remains unclear why beef products have been included in this suspension, but the association has been told the suspension should be temporary.

Shipments of Canadian beef to China represented 2.6 per cent of Canada’s total beef exports last year.

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La Coop federee, Quebec’s largest agri-food company, has signed a deal to buy the pork and milling assets of F. Menard.

The two companies say La Coop’s Olymel division will absorb F. Menard’s slaughtering and processing operations and the Sollio Agriculture division will handle the company’s animal feed operations.

F. Menard employs more than 1,200 people with an annual production of over 1.1 million hogs which is about 15 per cent of pork production in Quebec.

The agreement continues a long-term trend of consolidation in Canada’s pork sector, the seventh largest in the world and the third-largest exporter.

The financial details were not disclosed.

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The Canadian Seed Growers Association presented an honourary life membership to Brenda Trask.

Trask is the national communications manager for SeCan based in Ottawa, Ontario.

After working as a special event co-ordinator, Trask went on to work for an agriculture advertising agency.

Her public relations career includes roles with Canadian Agri-Marketing Association and Eastern Canadian Farm Writers. She is a past president of the board of the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame. She was the recipient of the Canadian Seed Trade Association Seed Achievement Award in 2011.