(Dk_photos/iStock/Getty Images)

Pork packer considering Moose Jaw’s ex-beef plant

Donald's Fine Foods announces 'feasibility study'

A potential buyer’s study could soon show whether a former beef packing plant in southern Saskatchewan has the bones to support a pork processing operation for cull sows. Richmond, B.C.-based Donald’s Fine Foods, which since 2010 has operated the Thunder Creek Pork hog plant at Moose Jaw, announced last week it plans to run a […] Read more

(PorcOlymel.com)

Olymel pork plant workers take slaughter into OT

Over 800 volunteered for added shifts with charitable twist, packer says

Workers at three Olymel hog slaughter plants in Quebec volunteered for overtime shifts over the weekend to help clear the province’s backlog of market-weight hogs, the company said Saturday. Sollio’s meat packing arm said over 800 workers at its slaughter plants at Yamachiche and St-Esprit and the former F. Menard plant it now owns at […] Read more


(ComfreyFarmPork.com)

HyLife buys pork packing, hog production capacity

Firm buys stake in U.S. packer, Manitoba hog farming business

Canadian hog production and pork processing firm HyLife has moved to expand its reach in North American pork packing as well as Manitoba hog farming. La Broquerie, Man.-based HyLife announced last week it has bought a 75 per cent stake in Taylor Corp.’s Prime Pork, a packing and processing operation at Windom, Minnesota, about 200 […] Read more

(TysonFoods.com)

Tyson to shut Iowa pork plant against COVID-19 outbreak

Plant handles up to 3.5 per cent of U.S. pork output

Chicago | Reuters — Tyson Foods said on Thursday it will temporarily close an Iowa pork plant due to the coronavirus pandemic, a month after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered slaughterhouses to stay open to protect the country’s food supply. Meat processors such as Tyson, WH Group’s Smithfield Foods and JBS USA temporarily closed about […] Read more


File photo of a truck arriving at a Smithfield Foods pork plant at Smithfield, Va. on Oct. 17, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Tom Polansek)

Smithfield starting to reopen Sioux Falls hog plant, union says

Major plant was shuttered by COVID-19 outbreak

Chicago | Reuters — Smithfield Foods, the world’s biggest pork processor, resumed limited operations on Monday at a massive South Dakota slaughterhouse it closed last month because of the coronavirus pandemic, the union representing plant employees said. The closure of the plant and other slaughterhouses due to coronavirus cases among employees has led to temporary […] Read more

(Video screengrab from Conestoga Meats via YouTube)

Major Ontario pork packer expects to re-open Monday

Conestoga Meats went offline April 27

The hog slaughter and processing plant billed as Ontario’s second-biggest pork producer expects to be back in business Monday after a week-long COVID-19-related shutdown. Conestoga Meats, based at Breslau, just east of Kitchener, notified hog farmers and shippers on Friday that it would suspend “most operations” during the week of April 27 to May 1, […] Read more



(Shadowinternet/E+/Getty Images)

Pork sector’s calls for aid heard, not yet answered

Federal government says it's examining "all options"

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau’s office said late last week the government is working “around the clock” to respond to the pandemic’s impact on farmers and agri-food businesses. But there was no commitment to the direct support Canadian pork industry officials say is now necessary to carry the sector through a crisis which has led […] Read more


(Deyana Robova photo/iStock/Getty Images)

Smithfield to close Illinois pork facility

Workers test positive for COVID-19

Reuters — World’s largest pork processor Smithfield Foods said Friday it will suspend operations at its Monmouth, Illinois pork processing facility next week after some employees tested positive for COVID-19, adding to already strained U.S. meat supplies. The news of some of the company’s 1,700 employees at the plant testing positive comes a day after […] Read more

(Kelli Jo/iStock/Getty Images)

Pig farmers seek aid of $20 per hog against market crash

Losses of $675 million expected from COVID-19-related causes

Canada’s hog producers seek an immediate federal cash injection equivalent to $20 per hog against a market crash that’s expected to cost their sector about $675 million overall. Officials with the Canadian Pork Council on Thursday called for Ottawa to provide further aid to hog farmers who are now expecting to lose $30 to more […] Read more