Ontario seeding, tillage and application equipment maker Salford Group is taking a share of the spreader market by buying U.S. manufacturer BBI Spreaders. Salford announced last week it had closed a deal effective Oct. 2 to buy the company, based at Cornelia, Georgia, about 70 km north of Athens. Financial terms of the deal weren’t […] Read more
Salford buys U.S. spreader manufacturer
St. John’s chicken plant’s federal license pulled
A St. John’s, N.L. chicken slaughter and processing plant has been handed a suspension over the consistency of its food safety systems. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday it has suspended the operating license for Country Ribbon Inc., which markets fresh and frozen chicken, chicken parts, appetizers and deli meats under the Country Ribbon, […] Read more
Quebec police bust alleged veg-oil theft ring
Updated — Seven people in Montreal and Laval were arrested Thursday morning and more arrests are expected, linked to what provincial and local police allege has been a major theft ring for used cooking oil. The Surete du Quebec’s Montreal division and the Service de police de Laval said Thursday the seven are alleged to have […] Read more
CFIA reviewing reports of abuse at Alta. hog assembly yard
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency plans to review claims of abuse of hogs at an Alberta hog stockyard, as footage purported to show the alleged incidents makes its way toward network TV. The CTV program W5 is scheduled to air a segment Saturday night (Oct. 11) featuring hidden-camera footage supplied by the Canadian arm of […] Read more
Chance remains for Que. beef plant before asset sale
The equipment at Quebec’s now-shuttered Levinoff-Colbex cull cow packing plant goes to auction in about eight weeks — but until then, its owners will entertain offers from buyers interested in rescuing the plant. The Colbex building and land at St-Cyrille-de-Wendover, in the Centre-du-Quebec region, are still owned by provincial investment financing agency Investissement Quebec and […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME live cattle end mostly lower as stocks slide
Chicago | Reuters — Most Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts slumped on Friday, pressured by triple-digit Wall Street losses and a firmer U.S. dollar, traders said. U.S. stocks fell on Friday, with the tech sector weighing the most after a chip maker warned of a major pullback in the industry. Continued broader market liquidation […] Read more
U.S. sees 2015 pork output topping beef for first time in 62 years
Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. government on Friday raised its pork production forecast for the calendar year ending September 2015 that shows pork surpassing beef for the first time since 1952, as hog farmers rapidly recover from a deadly pig virus. In the monthly World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), the U.S. Department […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn, soy fall on big harvest, hedge pressure
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade corn and soybean futures dropped on Friday, with big crops in focus following a U.S. Agriculture Department report that boosted already-record forecasts for U.S. production. Wheat futures closed higher after the USDA cut its outlook for domestic supplies in the closely watched report. [Related story] Corn and […] Read more
Ukraine to lose 111K acres to fighting in east
Kiev | Reuters — Ukraine will lose around 45,000 hectares (about 111,200 acres) of its grains harvest due to fighting in eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk controlled by pro-Russian separatists, the agriculture ministry said Friday. Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and rebels has also damaged another 3,300 hectares (8,100 acres) of crops, the ministry […] Read more
Manitoba corn harvest just getting started
CNS Canada — Many crops have seen delayed harvest in Manitoba this year, and grain corn is no exception. Only a few fields have been harvested so far, with more earlier-seeded crops expected to start coming off the fields next week. “A lot of it has reached maturity, so it’s just drying down to moisture […] Read more