Japan rejects U.S. request for eliminating age limit on beef imports (Japan Today) PARIS — Japanese agriculture minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka rejected a U.S. request to eliminate a cattle age limit on beef imports from the United States at a meeting with his U.S. counterpart Mike Johanns here Wednesday, Japanese officials said. [News Source]

The Prairie Star (Prairie Star) If you could save, say, $1,000 on the purchase of a new car or truck because it did not have a shatterproof windshield and side glass, would you cut the deal? [News Source]

Canadian farms fewer but bigger: census (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Canadian farmers are becoming scarcer, bigger and grayer, Canadian census data showed on Wednesday, confirming a long-term trend in one of the world's largest grain- and livestock-exporting nations. [News Source]

NMPF opposes opening Canadian border to breeding animals (AG Weekly) ARLINGTON, Va. - The National Milk Producers Federation, in comments submitted Friday (March 9) to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is opposing the resumption of cattle exports from Canada for breeding or herd replacement purposes. [News Source]

Effects of mad cow crisis still linger in Canada’s beef industry, says census (CNews) CARVEL, Alta. (CP) - Cattle producer John Hrasko took no pleasure watching his herd grow over the last few years as the economics of the mad cow disease scare squeezed joy and profit from his mixed farm. [News Source]

Reuters Canada Business Summary (The Globe and Mail) MONTREAL (Reuters) - Some 3,200 track workers at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. began a national strike in Canada on Wednesday over failed talks on wages and other issues, the union said. "It's begun right across the country," Jeremy Spikula, a union director at Teamsters Canada, told Reuters. [News Source]

Kyodo economic news summary -6- (Kyodo via Yahoo! Asia News) _ ---------- OECD warns of widening income gaps in member states [News Source]

Canada farms dwindling in number but bigger: census (Reuters via Yahoo! News) The number of farms in Canada fell 7.1 percent between 2001 and 2006 but their average size grew as farmers adapted to challenges like mad cow disease and changing crop prices, a census by Statistics Canada showed on Wednesday. [News Source]

Japan rejects U.S. request for eliminating age limit on beef imports (Kyodo via Yahoo! Asia News) _ Japanese agriculture minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka rejected a U.S. request to eliminate a cattle age limit on beef imports from the United States at a meeting with his U.S. counterpart Mike Johanns here Wednesday, Japanese officials said. [News Source]

Compensation due for beetle ban: MacDonell (The Halifax Daily News) Woodlot owners who lost money during a failed seven-year battle to eradicate the brown spruce longhorn beetle deserve federal compensation, Hants East NDP MLA John MacDonell said yesterday. [News Source]