Set a spell Winter 2016

    Get a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and make yourself comfortable; it’s going to take you a while to read this issue of Atlantic Beef & Sheep.
    You’re headed to New Zealand with Maritime Beef Council General Manager Ellen Crane. She’ll talk a bit about the International Beef Alliance Conference (page 28) and show you some amazing photographs. “It’s very interesting how they integrate the beef and sheep together; they make the most of their land by doing that. The sheep eat whatever the cattle don’t,” Crane says.
    Yousef Papadopoulos and John Duynisveld will tell you about a new alfalfa variety (page 18) that can weather extreme weather. In the forage breeding program at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Kentville Research and Development Centre, they developed a rhizomatous variety of alfalfa that can be productive in both years of drought and years of excessive rain.
    You’ll spend some time at the Cape John Pasture Field Day (page 32). Animal Behaviour Specialist Jane Morrigan will provide some sage advice (page 34) on how to use low-stress animal handling techniques and equipment. She emphasizes that calm herd animals live longer, gain weight quicker, breed easier, and produce superior quality meat. 
    There’s lots of news in this issue of Atlantic Beef & Sheep. You’ll discover how a P.E.I. farmer may have found the solution (page 40) to a global ecological problem by eliminating livestock methane emissions.
    You’ll hear about Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (page 39) investing $345,720 in the Canadian Sheep Federation’s Scrapie Eradication Strategic Plan. 
    We’ll tell you about Atlantic Beef Products’ Island View Farms brand (page 35) being sold at 13 Sobeys, Foodland, and Co-op stores across P.E.I.
    And we’ll bring you up to date on the fire (page 38) at Ram Farms Ltd., in Tatamagouche, N.S.
    You’ll also get a short synopsis of the Canadian Sheep Federation’s Sustainability Committee meeting (page 22) in Halifax that had participants from across the country join in via conference line and live webinar. 
    We’ll drop by and visit a couple of new farmers who’ve added abattoirs to their expansion plans (page 25) in Fredericton Junction, N.B., and Deer Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador. And you can spend an afternoon at Balamore Farms in Great Village, N.S., (page 24) for the Maritime Limousin Association annual meeting and to check out the Junior Show.
    And you don’t want to miss the show circuit. We’ll watch 242 head compete (page 27) at the incredible Classic Heritage Beef Show in Windsor, N.S. You can sit in the stands (page 20) at the New Brunswick Beef Expo in Sussex, and join the crowd (page 22) attending the inaugural Atlantic Agricultural Fall Fair in Halifax.
    And we’ll pay our respects to the late Arthur Carson (page 8) and Henry Bowers (page 5). And to Howard Morry, a Newfoundland sheep producer (page 17) who was inducted into the Atlantic Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2005.    
    Wishing you a safe, happy holiday season and a prosperous new year.