CME August 2019 lean hogs with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Lean hogs up on trade hopes, falling corn prices

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) lean hog futures rose on Monday on a mix of technical buying, falling corn prices and muted optimism about the weekend resumption of U.S.-China trade negotiations, traders said. “Lean hog futures (received) support from hopes of more Chinese buying after weekend talks went well,” INTL FCStone chief […] Read more

CME July 2019 lean hogs with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Nearby lean hogs drop on continued herd expansion

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) lean hog futures were mixed on Friday, with nearby contracts pressured by plentiful supplies of hogs and pork and deferred months buoyed by signs of a slowing multi-year U.S. hog herd expansion, traders said. Actively traded nearby contracts posted steep declines after the U.S. Department of Agriculture […] Read more



Rain gives farmers relief, for now, from three-year drought

Rain gives farmers relief, for now, from three-year drought

Winnipeg | Reuters — With drought turning Chad Ross’s pastures brown, the southeastern Saskatchewan rancher sent 140 head of cattle to slaughter earlier than usual this spring, as the Prairies’ three-year drought made them too expensive to feed. The ranch and feedlot near Estevan has lost money two straight years. Long-awaited rains that swept the […] Read more





Francis Poulsen, centre, with steer donated to raise funds for Manitoba Cancer Care.

Hart Attacks: Long-time reader shares many good ideas

Now-retired mixed farmer is a man of many talents

It was great to receive a letter from retired Manitoba farmer, Francis Poulsen, that described some of the problem-solving “fixes” he applied to equipment and the land during more than 50 years of farming near Elm Creek, 50 km west of Winnipeg and about 35 km southeast of Portage la Prairie. Now retired for about […] Read more

Either store-bought or homemade creep feeder designs, stocked with a proper ration, can be used in early spring.

Creep feeding spring calves pays dividends

This program pencils out to a $23 per head net premium in 2019

It’s always heartwarming to see the twitch of a spring calf’s tail as it nurses its mum. As this calf approaches three months of age, the brood cow’s milk production decreases, only supplying about half of the calf’s nutrient requirements. The rest must be delivered by sprouting pastures. But that could spell trouble to calf […] Read more


Canada is currently contending with a burdensome beef supply.

Higher beef production weighs on cattle complex

Market Update with Jerry Klassen: Consumers will have to eat more beef to compensate

In my previous article, we mentioned that the cattle market was in a transition phase. Market-ready supplies of fed cattle during April were relatively tight while beef demand was moving through a seasonal high. The fed and feeder cattle markets softened during May as beef production grew. North American beef demand is considered inelastic so […] Read more

South African beef producer Calla Visser with some of his Bonsmara cattle.

Hyenas aren’t on Canadian predator list

The world’s beef producers face similar but different challenges

Every evening Calla Visser has to round up more than 400 cattle on his farm in eastern Botswana and herd them into outdoor corrals for the night to protect them against theft and predators. And early every morning Calla and his staff start going around the five different corrals on his 6,000-hectare farm counting all […] Read more