CME June 2022 live cattle (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (pink, brown and black lines). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME cattle futures end week lower

June hogs firm, April lower

Chicago | Reuters — Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange slid on Friday to end the week lower as cash markets stalled, despite strong slaughter rates. “The weekly kill came in much larger than expected,” said Dennis Smith, commodity broker at Archer Financial. “I suspect that will change the tone of the cash […] Read more

Beef demand appears to be somewhat softer compared to January.

Cattle market contends with softer demand and rising grain prices

Market Update with Jerry Klassen: As Russia and Ukraine ban grain exports, Canada may become a major supplier in some markets

Alberta packers were buying fed cattle on a dressed basis in the range $272-$275 during the second week of March, relatively unchanged from 30 days earlier. Live bids were reported at $161 f.o.b. the feedlot in Alberta. The Alberta cash trade continues to trade at a $13-14 discount to the U.S. However, this spread had […] Read more


CME June 2022 live cattle (candlesticks) with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME cattle ease on ample supply, flat cash offers

Flat cutout values drag on hogs

Chicago | Reuters — Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange fell on Thursday, pressured by ample cattle supplies that offer little incentive for packers to bid up the cash market. “The supply of market ready cattle is a little less than last year, but it’s still plentiful. It just doesn’t seem like the […] Read more

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland holds a news conference before delivering the 2022-23 budget in Ottawa on April 7, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Blair Gable)

Supply chain improvement funds pledged in federal budget

Money also added for support of TFWs, P.E.I. potato sector

The federal government’s release last week of its Emissions Reduction Plan has turned out to be the spoiler for new ag funding in Thursday’s 2022 budget — although more money is also pledged to help strengthen cross-country supply chains generally. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Thursday laid out a federal budget with about $452.3 billion […] Read more


A custom hauler spreads dairy manure on hay ground using a Husky 18000L Slimline liquid manure spreader on a farm at Wallenstein, Ont., north of Kitchener, in the spring of 2018. (Husky Farm Equipment handout photo via Reuters)

No poop for you: Manure supplies run short as fertilizer prices soar

Ontario honeywagon maker all sold out

Chicago | Reuters — For nearly two decades, Abe Sandquist has used every marketing tool he can think of to sell the back end of a cow. Poop, after all, needs to go somewhere. The Midwestern entrepreneur has worked hard to woo farmers on its benefits for their crops. Now, facing a global shortage of […] Read more

CME May 2022 feeder cattle (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (pink, dark red and black lines). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME cattle, hogs firm

Futures supported by cash markets

Chicago | Reuters — Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange lifted on Wednesday, supported by cash cattle prices that pulled up nearby futures markets. “We just got below the cash market,” said Alan Brugler, president of Brugler Marketing. “That was an argument to try the long side.” The nearby April live cattle contract […] Read more


Hunter Goliath turnips can be an excellent forage cover crop, although as the White Lake Colony learned one concern with turnips, especially if there is a high percentage in the forage mix is that the high protein crop “runs through the cattle too fast; the cows get very loose manure”.

Experimenting with irrigated cover crops

Program helps to extend the grazing season while also helping to benefit the soil

The White Lake Hutterite Colony near Nobleford, about half an hour northwest of Lethbridge, Alberta produces both beef cattle along with annual crops, and in recent years they’ve started looking at growing cover crops under irrigation. Cattle manager Jerry Hofer has been trying several different species to be seeded after taking off soft white wheat […] Read more

The United Nations’ General Assembly Hall in Manhattan. (BWZenith/iStock/Getty Images)

Food, farming, forestry must be transformed to curb global warming, UN says

Earlier draft of panel report called for reduced intake of meat

Reuters — Protecting forests, changing diets, and altering farming methods could contribute around a quarter of the greenhouse gas cuts needed to avert the worst impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations’ climate panel. But the changes are unlikely to happen unless governments act to spur them along, the report from the Intergovernmental […] Read more


(Mustafagull/iStock/Getty Images)

B.C. doubling seat count at Saskatchewan vet college

Saskatoon veterinary school to take 40 B.C. students

The interprovincial cost-sharing agreement supporting the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) will now allow for twice as many students from British Columbia. The B.C. government and the U of S on Monday announced the province will now put up almost $10.7 million to double the number of provincially subsidized students to […] Read more

CME June 2022 live cattle (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (pink, brown and black lines). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME cattle ease, seasonal high possible

Avian flu outbreaks may ripple through meat markets

Chicago | Reuters — Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange eased on Tuesday, pressured by a steady supply of market-ready cattle that may indicate a seasonal high in the market. “Five weeks in a row of generally steady trade for cash cattle is reminding the trade that we may already be at the […] Read more