Agricultural Growth Act Receives Royal Assent

Mar 02, 2015

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced Friday that Bill C-18, also known as the Agricultural Growth Act, has received Royal Assent.

The act is expected to modernize Canadian agriculture and increase trade opportunities for farmers by providing greater access to new crop varieties and the latest technology.

"Canadian agriculture is an important driver of economic growth across Canada," said Ritz. "The passage of the Agricultural Growth Act is a momentous step forward for our agricultural industry. This Bill will give producers a competitive advantage in the global marketplace, lead to increased investment in research and innovation, and translate into more jobs throughout the sector."

This new legislation strengthens agricultural intellectual property rights through the ratification of the act of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, also known as UPOV'91.

The legislation also improves access to the latest scientific research, reduces red tape and regulatory burden on producers, and expands global market opportunities.

Source: PortageOnline

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.