Alberta Launches New COVID-19 Program For Beekeepers

Jun 12, 2020

Alberta Agriculture and Forestry is introducing a new Canadian Agricultural Partnership Program for beekeepers.

The program will include up to $1 million to help beekeepers offset the costs of increased colony replacements due to COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made importing colony replacements from usual, more affordable sources like New Zealand and Australia more difficult.

The program, available this summer, will be retroactive to cover issues faced in the spring of 2020.

Program details are still being worked out but producers are encouraged to subscribe to Alberta’s Canadian Agricultural Partnership site, where information will be shared as it becomes available.

Alberta is the largest producer of honey in Canada, producing 41 million pounds annually and contributing $67 million to the economy.

Click here to see more...

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.