U.S. livestock: CME cattle pressured by anticipation of lower cash trade

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures ended slightly lower on Thursday, pressured by expectations of lower cash trade, and weaker wholesale beef prices, traders said. Beef packers will be reluctant to pay higher prices for cattle in the cash market as wholesale beef prices come off recent highs and their profit […] Read more

PEDv hits more Ont. farrowing barns

Reading Time: < 1 minute The porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, most often fatal to new young piglets, has appeared so far this week at three more farrow-to-finish operations in southwestern Ontario. Ontario Pork on its website reported two new cases of PEDv at farrow-to-finish barns in Perth and Wellington counties, confirmed Wednesday, along with a case confirmed Tuesday at another […] Read more


U.S. livestock: CME lean hogs surge, cattle firm

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures jumped more than one per cent on Wednesday, fueled by firm cash hog prices and fund buying, traders said. Heavy snowfall and cold temperatures across a large portion of the U.S. Midwest and Plains regions also lent support to hog futures due to uncertainty about […] Read more

PEDv not yet affecting packers, but futures get boost

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada –– While Canada’s pork industry tries to prevent the spread of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) after its recent arrival in Ontario, the discovery hasn’t led to any major near-term changes at slaughterhouses, yet. “I don’t think anything is going to happen in the short-term, meaning that pigs go to the same […] Read more


U.S. livestock: CME live cattle end lower, hogs firm

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures retreated on Tuesday, pressured by technical selling and by anticipation of softer cash prices in the near term, traders and analysts said. The CME February live cattle contract fell below the 20-day moving average, triggering some technical selling, a trader said. There was talk of […] Read more

Wendy’s in 2011 opened this new “ultra-modern” concept restaurant at Etobicoke, Ont., as one of four test sites for the North American market. (CNW Group/Wendy’s International)

Wendy’s calls for progress reports on stall-free pork

Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian and U.S. pork suppliers feeding the Wendy’s restaurant chain now must file quarterly progress reports on how much of their pork is produced without the use of gestation stalls. The Ohio-based burger chain, which includes about 370 Canadian outlets among about 6,600 worldwide, announced in 2007 it would give preferential buying to pork suppliers […] Read more


U.S. livestock: CME live cattle futures drop as beef prices plunge

Reading Time: 2 minutes Hog futures mostly up on speculative buying Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures posted modest losses on Friday, but were up from session lows, dragged by retreating wholesale beef prices, traders and analysts said. The afternoon’s wholesale choice beef price, or cutout, was $223.49 per hundredweight (cwt), $7.26 lower than on Thursday, […] Read more

Tyson says pig virus to cut pork supply by two to four per cent

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Tyson Foods, the largest U.S. meat processor, said Friday it expects pork supplies to drop two to four per cent this fiscal year, raising wholesale prices, as a deadly pig virus spreads through the U.S. hog belt. Heavier hogs will offset some of the loss in headcount, Jim Lochner, Tyson’s chief operating officer, […] Read more


U.S. pig virus cases see biggest weekly rise since discovery

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Confirmed cases of a deadly pig virus spreading across the U.S. Hog Belt jumped by 215 to its highest weekly increase since it was discovered in the country in April 2013, according to USDA’s National Animal Health Laboratory Network. NAHLN announced the rise in cases of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) on Wednesday. […] Read more

(Photo courtesy USDA-ARS)

Fourth Ont. hog farm hit by diarrhea virus, official says

Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — The piglet-killing porcine epidemic diarrhea virus has spread to a fourth farm in the Ontario, the provincial government said Wednesday, despite the hog industry’s efforts to stop it by disinfecting delivery trucks and clothing used on farms. The virus has killed more than one million piglets in the U.S. but it has so far […] Read more