Canadian agriculture has faced COVID-19 issues within every industry subset. Challenges in southern Alberta’s Feedlot Alley, the province’s central hub for feeder cattle, have piled up since early 2019 and the global pandemic was just the latest hit in a whirlwind stretch.

Already backlogged and bogged down by frigid temperatures and the biggest grain harvest in history, CN Rail has avoided a strike by 3,000 of its workers, averting a full-blown disaster.