CBOT May 2020 soybeans with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybeans fall further on coronavirus demand risks

Wheat slides as U.S. crop ratings hold steady

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean futures slid lower on Tuesday as fears of demand destruction for livestock feed due the closure of several U.S. meat packing plants hung over the market. Corn also inched lower, hovering near a 3-1/2-year low as it tracked crude oil markets. More than a third of the U.S. crop […] Read more

Family members of longtime JBS USA meat packing plant employee Saul Sanchez gather April 10, 2020 at his Greeley, Colorado home after his death from COVID-19. (Photo: Reuters/Jim Urquhart)

‘Elbow to elbow:’ North America’s meat plant workers fall ill, walk off jobs

Supply chains struggling to keep pace with surging demand

Reading Time: 4 minutes Chicago/Winnipeg | Reuters — At a Wayne Farms chicken processing plant in Alabama, workers recently had to pay the company 10 U.S. cents a day to buy masks to protect themselves from the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to a meat inspector. In Colorado, nearly a third of the workers at a JBS USA beef plant stayed […] Read more


(File photo by Greg Berg)

U.S. grains: Soybeans drop as livestock markets drag soymeal lower

Wheat eases on global supply; corn unfazed by crude oil deal

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean futures fell more than one per cent on Monday in the market’s steepest drop in 1-1/2 weeks, as livestock processing plant closures that impact feed supply weighed on soymeal prices. Corn also sagged despite optimistic news that OPEC might curb oil production, after a deal was signed over the […] Read more

(iStock/Getty Images)

U.S. livestock: June hogs, cattle plunge limit down

COVID-19 shuts more U.S. meat processors

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. livestock futures tumbled on Monday on worries about declining U.S. meat processing capacity after Smithfield Foods announced Sunday it would indefinitely shut one of its pork plants due to novel coronavirus infections among workers. The closure at Sioux Falls, S.D., affecting four to five per cent of U.S. pork production, […] 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 shutting South Dakota pork plant indefinitely

Major packer warns of meat shortages during pandemic

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Smithfield Foods, the world’s biggest pork processor, said on Sunday it will shut a U.S. plant indefinitely due to a rash of coronavirus cases among employees and warned the country was moving “perilously close to the edge” in supplies for grocers. Slaughterhouse shutdowns are disrupting the U.S. food supply chain, crimping […] Read more


CBOT May 2020 soybeans with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybeans, wheat climb on currency

Corn rises and falls with oil

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean and wheat futures on Thursday posted their biggest gains in two weeks, as a falling U.S. dollar made exports more attractive against South American and Black Sea grain producers. Corn futures climbed early on strong U.S. export sales and an early jump in crude oil prices, but settled only […] Read more

CME June 2020 live cattle with Bollinger (20,2) bands. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Futures slide as COVID-19 worries roil market

Concerns over meat processing pace drag on cattle, hogs

Reading Time: < 1 minute Chicago | Reuters — U.S. livestock futures slumped again on Thursday, volatility roiling the market as it faced resistance over surging stocks and growing concerns that meat packers will close plants in the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Lean hog future prices slipped for a second session on concerns about the domestic glut of hog supplies and […] Read more


A man walks with his pet dog as he talks to a vendor who sells dog meat at a market during the local dog meat festival at Yulin in China’s Guangxi Autonomous Region on June 21, 2018. (File photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu)

China reclassifies dogs as pets, not livestock

New guidelines drafted in post-virus regulatory push

Reading Time: 2 minutes Shanghai | Reuters — China has drawn up new guidelines to reclassify dogs as pets rather than livestock, the agriculture ministry said, part of a response to the coronavirus outbreak that the Humane Society called a potential “game changer” in animal welfare. Though dog meat remains a delicacy in many regions, the ministry of agriculture […] Read more

A corn crop west of Grunthal, Man. on Aug. 17, 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)

USDA raises corn, soy, wheat supply outlook

Ending stocks expected up on slowing export demand

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Agriculture Department raised its outlook for domestic supplies of corn on Thursday on expectations for reduced usage by ethanol producers, as demand for the alternative fuel has been cratering due to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The government also bumped up its wheat and soybean ending stocks view […] Read more