Photo: Thinkstock

U.S. livestock: Live cattle continue to rally on strong cash prices, fund buying

Chicago | Reuters – U.S. live cattle futures extended their rally on Monday, lifted by strong cash cattle and beef prices, and funds continuing to add to their positions, traders said. The wholesale choice beef price hit $227.51 per cwt on Monday, up $2.07, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said. The wholesale select beef prices rose […] Read more

Photo: File

U.S. livestock: Live cattle rally to 5-1/2 month peak on firm cash cattle, beef prices

Chicago | Reuters – U.S. live cattle futures stretched to 5-1/2-month highs on Friday, lifted by strong cash cattle and beef prices and positioning ahead of a monthly cattle supply report. Cash cattle at southern U.S. Plains feedlot markets traded around $110 per cwt or more this week, up from an average of $108 last […] Read more





Screenshot from a video posted on YouTube showing animal rights activists entering a turkey barn at the Jumbo Valley Hutterite Colony on Labour Day.

Charges laid in Alberta turkey farm occupation

A high-profile occupation last month by protestors at an Alberta Hutterite colony’s turkey farm has led to criminal charges against four people. RCMP on Wednesday announced charges of one count each of break and enter to commit mischief for a 46-year-old Edmonton man, a 24-year-old woman from Pincher Creek and a 28-year-old woman and 16-year-old […] Read more

Blaine Pedersen, shown here in 2016, is Manitoba’s new minister for agriculture and resource development. (Manitoba Co-operator photo by Lorraine Stevenson)

Manitoba agriculture merged into new provincial ministry

Manitoba’s provincial agriculture ministry is being merged with its resource development arm under the oversight of the minister responsible for the latter. Premier Brian Pallister on Wednesday announced a reorganization of his government’s ministries along with a shuffle of his cabinet in the wake of his Progressive Conservative government’s re-election last month. The realignment sees […] Read more


CME February 2020 live cattle, with five-, 20- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Live cattle jump as beef stocks tighten, funds buy

Chicago | Reuters –– U.S. live cattle futures scaled to their highest point in 5-1/2 months on Wednesday as tighter-than-expected beef stocks and rising cash beef prices triggered active fund buying that took prices through key technical resistance levels. Actively traded contracts posted their strongest gains in nearly a month, breaking out of a narrow […] Read more



(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Klassen: Feeder market experiences bouncing behaviour

Compared to last week, western Canadian yearling markets traded $2-$4 higher on average; calves traded $2 to as much as $6 higher. The feeder market has recovered after a softer tone earlier in October. Favourable weather in southern Alberta over the past week caused Lethbridge-area feedlots to step forward more aggressively, especially in the lighter […] Read more

Some odds and ends and a few new pieces came together to build this pasture watering system.

A pasture-watering system that won’t break the bank

The practice of never throwing anything away helps with small projects

In our area of the Interlake in Manitoba, the summer of 2018 was dry but many livestock producers had a surplus of feed left over from 2017. This year was worse. Sloughs were drying for the first time in recent memory. In the Shoal Lake area producers had to repair fence lines across sloughs for […] Read more