(File photo by Dave Bedard)

Pork supply issues hit Maple Leaf’s Q1 ledger

Reuters — Meat packer Maple Leaf Foods posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly profit as lower prices and a temporary interruption in supplies hurt sales of its pork products, sending its shares to their lowest in nearly two years. The company, one of Canada’s biggest pork processors, said that processed fresh pork sales were affected by a […] Read more



(Gloria Solano-Aguilar photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. livestock: CME lean hogs jump on short-covering

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures rallied more than three per cent on Monday in a short-covering and bargain-buying rebound from life-of-contract lows posted last week, traders said. Some contracts, including actively-traded June, rose by as much as the daily three-cent limit as a steady slide in prices over the past […] Read more



(Gloria Solano-Aguilar photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Tariffs raise tough questions for pork industry

CNS Canada — Representatives from the two largest pork-exporting states in the U.S. were in Winnipeg Thursday to take in the Manitoba Pork Council’s general meeting. The delegates, who hailed from Iowa and Minnesota, talked about the various challenges facing their industry. In 2017, over a quarter of the U.S. pork industry’s C$6.5 billion market […] Read more

Attendees at the 2017 Food and Hotel China trade show watch USMEF chefs prepare U.S. beef and pork. (USMEF.org)

U.S. meat groups fear for market growth with China beef tariff hike

Chicago | Reuters — China’s proposal on Wednesday for tariffs on U.S. beef confirmed the worst-case scenario for the U.S. cattle industry, trade groups said Wednesday, even as they remained hopeful the dispute could be resolved quickly. China listed U.S. goods from soybeans to beef that could potentially incur a 25 per cent import tariff […] Read more


(USDA.gov via Flickr)

U.S. March hog herd hits record high

Chicago | Reuters — The number of hogs on U.S. farms in the December-February quarter was up 3.1 per cent from the same period a year ago, a record high for the quarter, according to Thursday’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report. Farmers added extra pigs, encouraged by less-costly feed during that period and the […] Read more




File photo

U.S. livestock: CME cattle drop daily limit on lower cash market sales

Chicago | Reuters – Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures fell sharply on Friday and hit daily trading limits on weaker cash market prices and easing concerns that frigid weather in feedlot areas could disrupt marketings. Fund selling, or “rolling,” of lead-month positions into deferred months ahead of similar moves early next week added pressure. […] Read more