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Hay Continues To Move West

Hay is continuing to be shipped to the Prairies through the Canadian Federation of Agriculture's Hay West Initiative.

"It's been going quite well from the perspective that supply and demand are both certainly very strong," said CFA President Mary Robinson. "We have producers in western Canada, who have been very pleased with the hay they've received. We've had a couple of hiccups as I think anyone would expect for something of this magnitude and we've got lots of hay in Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces to move west. The challenge right now is securing funding to offset the transportation costs, because obviously the transportation costs are extremely high."

CFA is operating on a break-even basis under this initiative, with hay being purchased from Eastern and Central Canadian farmers and resold at cost to recipients.

"The big thing is making sure that we've got the money to get hay in the hands of the producers who need it. We're prioritizing people who have water for their animals and have breeding stock. Trying to respond to that as effectively as we can," added Robinson.

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Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

Video: Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

When was the last time you read the label on your honey?

We spent a day at Molenkamp Honey Farms with Michael Molenkamp, who has been keeping bees for 17 seasons and runs three to four thousand hives. In mid-September, he was finishing treatments and getting his bees ready for winter, and he walked us through how Alberta honey gets made.

Alberta has just 150 commercial beekeepers running 300,000 colonies, and together they produce 40% of Canada’s honey. Long summer days and golden canola fields give Alberta honey a light flavour that’s hard to match anywhere else.

Molenkamp calls Alberta beekeepers some of the most resilient farmers he knows. There’s plenty of Alberta honey to go around, but a lot on our shelves isn’t from here, so his ask is simple. Give the label a second look and choose honey made by Alberta beekeepers, or buy straight from a beekeeper near you.