CME August 2021 live cattle (candlesticks) with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME live cattle ease as cash market diverges

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures eased for a third session on Friday as futures markets tried to read conflicting cash markets, traders said. “We have the (U.S.) south backed up on cattle, trying to get cattle moved through,” said Scott Varilek, broker at Kooima Kooima Varilek Trading Inc. “There’s tighter […] Read more

CME August 2021 live cattle (candlesticks) with 100-day moving average (red line) and August 2021 lean hogs (pink open/high/low/close). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME live cattle ease as beef demand cools

CME lean hog futures mostly firm

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures dropped for a second day, following U.S. boxed beef prices lower as seasonal demand cools. “You’re still seeing boxed beef pull back, which is normal, seasonally,” said Matthew Wiegand, Risk Management Consultant at FuturesOne. “We’re past the Fourth of July — we don’t have a […] Read more


The Blair’s agro centre at Lipton, Sask. (Blairs.ag)

Co-op, Blair’s joint venture to sell one crop input centre

Regulator sees overlap between Co-op, Blair's at Lipton

A new joint venture formed to run seven existing crop input retail centres in central and southeastern Saskatchewan will settle for six. The federal Competition Bureau on Wednesday announced an agreement with Federated Co-operatives (FCL) and the ag retail arm of the Saskatchewan-based Blair’s Family of Companies toward approval of their proposed joint venture. Blair’s […] Read more

U.S. President Joe Biden tours a manufacturing lab at McHenry County College during a visit to northwest Chicago suburb Crystal Lake on July 7, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)

Biden seeks to lift limits on U.S. farmer dealings with tractor makers, packers

Executive order to address corporate 'abuses of power'

Washington | Reuters — U.S. President Joe Biden wants to give that country’s farmers more power in negotiating the sale of livestock to big processors and in deciding who repairs their tractors, the White House said on Tuesday. The executive order, expected within days, will also address such competitive issues as delayed airline baggage, cellphone […] Read more


CME August 2021 live cattle (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (pink, brown and dark red lines). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Live cattle futures, boxed beef prices drop

Average hog weights down on week

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures approached a four-week low on Wednesday as U.S. beef prices declined. The drop in futures extended a four per cent setback from a contract high that most-active August live cattle reached last month. Prices for beef shipped to wholesale buyers in large boxes have also […] Read more




Smoke rises from a wildfire over a hill at Kamloops, B.C. on July 1, 2021, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. (Nicole Ritter via Reuters)

B.C. presses for ranchers to register before wildfires hit

Premises ID helps protect livestock in emergencies, province says

British Columbia’s provincial ag ministry hopes to shore up ranchers’ participation in the Premises Identification program against the risk of further wildfires this year. About two-thirds, or 5,200, of B.C.’s non-supply managed livestock producers, and all the supply-managed dairy cattle and poultry premises in the province, are registered in the program, the province said Wednesday. […] Read more



CME August 2021 lean hogs (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (pink, brown and black lines) and August 2021 live cattle (dark red line). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Lean hog futures ease on China demand worries

CME August live cattle down

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange hog futures weakened in the two most-active contract months on Friday as traders continued to dial in expectations for waning Chinese demand, analysts said. China, the world’s biggest pork consumer, has sought to rebuild its hog herd after it was decimated by an outbreak of the deadly pig […] Read more