By Dori Modney (@Dori_Modney on Twitter)

Federal funding will help grow Alberta Agriculture and Cattle Industry

Sep 15, 2017 | 2:26 PM

CALGLARY –  The federal Government is investing $4.4 million to help keep farmers on the cutting edge of innovation, expand markets and manage their business risk.

The announcement, made on Friday in Calgary, includes $2.2 million for projects that will help support the cattle industry, not only in Alberta, but across Canada.

 Projects include:

— $839,485 for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association to explore the use of remote sensing as a tool to insure forage crops.

— $901,240 to help the Alberta Beef Producers develop satellite data to help improve forage insurance.

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— $255,000 to help the Canadian Angus Association develop tools that will improve better breeding cattle.

— $205,500 for the National Cattle Feeders Association to develop and implement a national feedlot animal care assessment program.

  The remaining $2.2 million, will support programs for market development, emergency planning, animal care assessments and farm software development.

Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities and Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre, Kent Hehr, made the announcement on Friday

Canadian Cattlemen’s Association General Manager, Rob McNabb, noted the importance of the funding.

“Pasture is the lifeblood of the beef cattle industry and when things go wrong, rapid response and alternatives for feeding the cow herd must be timely. Using satellite measurements on a very localized scale, predictions of pasture productivity field by field, week by week, will be a significant tool for producers’ risk management on a yearly basis.”

The 2017 budget set a goal of growing Canada’s agri-food exports to $75 billion by 2025.

Alberta’s agricultural industry has over $13 billion in farmgate sales and close to $10 billion in exports.

More inforamtion can be found at the following links:

—  AgriMarketing Program  

— AgriRisk

— AgriInnovation Program

— Growing Forward 2

— Canadian Cattlemen’s Association

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