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Canadian Beef and Pork Exporters Responsible for Testing Meat Destined for Russia

Testing for Ractopamine - A New Requirement for Meat Exports to Russia

By , Farms.com

Canadian Federal Ag Minister Gerry Ritz announced Tuesday that exporters are responsible for satisfying the new Russian requirement for beef and pork meat products for zero residue of the feed additive ractopamine.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has provided meat processors with a set of testing guidelines to meet the new Russian meat export requirements.

"At this point, we're making sure the Russians understand this is not science-based," Ritz said at an unrelated news conference in Winnipeg. "There is an agreement around the world that ractopamine is a safe and usable product."

Russia’s request is that beef and pork products being imported from both Canada and the U.S. to be free ractopamine as of Dec 7. Canada has requested that Russia delay the new regulatory requirement until February.


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Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.