FREE-RANGE POULTRY PRODUCTION CONFERENCE: NEW DATES! . . . EQUINE GENETICS: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE . . . BRIGHTON NAMED EDITOR OF ATLANTIC BEEF & SHEEP  . . . NEWSPRINT OUTLOOK IS DARK . . . SHEEP HANDLING AND PARASITE CONTROL PROGRAM . . . OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST...

FREE-RANGE POULTRY PRODUCTION CONFERENCE: NEW DATES!
Source: ThinkFarm
The Free Range Poultry Conference initially scheduled for February 23-24 has been rescheduled for March 9-10. The Central Region Team and Perennia are co-organizing a conference on free-range poultry production covering a wide range of topics ranging from production, marketing, poultry nutrition, on-farm food safety and biosecurity. Any commercial producer of free-range eggs, chicken, or turkey in Nova Scotia won’t want to miss it! (read more)

EQUINE GENETICS: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Source: The Horse
We no longer listen to music on records or tapes. When we write, we “keyboard,” using some form of word processor. Our lives have changed profoundly as a consequence of technology. Therefore, it should be no surprise that changes of comparable or even greater magnitude are occurring in the realm of biology. (read more)

BRIGHTON NAMED EDITOR OF ATLANTIC BEEF & SHEEP
Source: AtlanticFarmer.com
Atlantic Canada’s only magazine published exclusively in support of the region’s beef and sheep farmers has a new editor. Writer and business columnist Rachel Brighton, a native of Australia where sheep out-number people three to one, takes up her new position in the new year, working primarily from her home in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, in the Annapolis Valley.

“We are fortunate to have a professional journalist of Brighton’s caliber taking on this important role,” commented publisher Dirk van Loon. The magazine, Atlantic Beef, which last year was broadened in scope to include sheep, was launched a quarter of a century ago with the encouragement of industry leaders, including John Rothlisberger of Liverpool, N.S.

In her work as a reporter, editor, publisher, and freelance writer in Canada and Australia over the past two decades, Brighton has paid particular attention to economic development and rural life. From 2007 to 2011, she was founding publisher and editor of an independent policy magazine covering Nova Scotia and neighboring provinces.

Currently she is a freelance business columnist with The Chronicle Herald in Halifax and a valued contributor to Atlantic Forestry, another title that, along with Atlantic Horse & Pony and Rural Delivery, rounds out the family of print titles from DvL Publishing Inc. based in Liverpool.

“My favorite place as a child was a sheep farm and I began my career as a journalist on a rural paper in a cattle-grazing district of Australia,” commented Brighton. “So it’s a full circle for me – but with a steep learning curve.”

With the beef industry rebounding from the dark days of BSE, and pending acceptance of the Brookside abattoir as a federal plant for sheep, the timing is perfect, van Loon said. “The farming community needs the support of top-notch communicators like Brighton telling its good stories, informing politicians and bureaucrats, and generally helping keep ‘the farm family’ together.”

“I am looking forward to meeting and speaking with producers across Atlantic Canada and getting to know the wider community of specialists and suppliers who support our beef and sheep industries,” Brighton said. “I am also looking forward to working with the writers and contributors who make Atlantic Beef & Sheep such a good magazine.”

NEWSPRINT OUTLOOK IS DARK
Source: The Working Forest
The North American newsprint industry’s November numbers confirm the long downward slide in domestic demand is accelerating and export markets are running into rising competition, creating a cloudy 2015 outlook. Canadian mills get some offset from the lower Canadian dollar, analysts said, but must deal with higher fiber and transportation costs. (read more)

SHEEP HANDLING AND PARASITE CONTROL PROGRAM
Source: NSFA
The objective of the Sheep Handling and Parasite Control Program is to provide support to sheep producers for the purchase of fencers, electric fencing and posts, page-wire fencing and posts, livestock gates and handling crates. Pasture rotation has been proven an effective tool in reducing parasite loads in sheep. Up to 40 percent of the purchase, to a maximum of $750 per applicant, will be provided for the purchase of this equipment. (read more)