News Releases
China lifts ban on Canadian pork
Sep. 03, 2010 -- The Chinese have banned Canadian pork since May, citing concerns about swine flu.
The Canadian government has argued that there is no threat from swine flu in Canadad. It has worked with the OIE, which is the World Organization for Animal Health, to develop the first certification agreement on swine flu and pork trade.
The OIE is the basis for trade relations under the World Trade Organization‘s rules.
The agreement follows "many high-level interventions from Canadian government officials," said Edouard Asnong, president of Canada Pork International, by way of a news release.
The deal has the potential to raise the price of all Canadian hogs because the Chinese buy some parts of a hog that are not in high demand in North America, Japan or Europe.
The Chinese ban took effect right after H1N1 swine flu was identified in a hog herd in Alberta. That farm was put under quarantine and all of the hogs were sacrificed despite the lack of Canadian concerns about the risk to pork consumers.
The Canadians and Chinese continue to work on a further deal to lift the ban on Canadian hogs.
China imported $47 million worth of Canadian pork in 2008 and Canadian Pork International lists China a "priority market"..
The Chinese deal might prompt other nations which continue to defy the OIE standands to drop their swine-flu-based bans on North American pork.
Before the bans, Canada was exporting about half of its pork and hogs, mainly to the U.S., and the U.S. was exporting about 25 per cent of its pork.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was in Paris meeting with OIE director general Bernard Vallat and pledged an additional $2 million in Canadian government funding for the OIE over the next four years.
Ritz was also in Paris for the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) agriculture ministers' meeting.
Adjust combine to harvest lodged soybeans
Sep. 03, 2010 -- This year’s soybean crop is taller than normal, increasing the potential for lodging to occur, says a Michigan State University soybean expert.
Writing on the university’s IPM web site, Mike Stanton says producers should be especially careful when adjusting and operating their combines to minimize gathering losses this fall. Some important recommendations for harvesting lodged soybeans are listed below:
• Decrease your ground speed to 2.5 to three miles per hour.
• Position the cutter bar as close to the ground as possible.
• Angle the pickup fingers on the reel back slightly to more aggressively pull the lodged plants to the cutter bar. Reduce the angle of the fingers if the plants are riding over the top of the reel.
• Run the axle of the reel 6 to 12 inches ahead of the cutter bar.
• Operate the reel as low as necessary to pick up lodged plants without causing them to ride over the top of the reel. Raise the reel if this happens.
• Consider installing vine lifters on the cutter bar if plants are severely lodged.
• If the plants are badly lodged in one direction, operate the combine in the opposite direction.
• Try increasing the reel speed in relation to the ground speed. The reel should run 10 to 25 per cent faster than the ground speed under ideal conditions. However, if the beans are lodged, increase the reel speed up to 50 percent faster than the ground speed. Be careful not to beat the beans out of the pods before they reach the cutter bar.
• Make one adjustment at a time and stop frequently to evaluate how you are doing.
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