Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — JBS USA said on Monday it would indefinitely shut a Minnesota hog slaughterhouse that produces about five per cent of the country’s pork, in the latest disruption to the U.S. food supply chain from the coronavirus pandemic. The closure limits the amount of meat the United States can produce for consumers […] Read more
JBS shuts Minnesota pork plant due to coronavirus
Pulse weekly outlook: Early snow hurts edible bean prospects
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — An early snow storm hit key edible bean growing regions of Manitoba and the northern U.S. hard, with a large portion of the crop in the region now facing an uncertain future. “It is unprecedented what’s happened at this point,” said Tim Courneya, executive vice-president of the Northarvest Bean Growers Association, which represents […] Read more
Ceres closes on option to buy Delmar Commodities
Reading Time: 2 minutes U.S. commodities firm Ceres Global Ag Corp. has exercised its option and closed its deal to buy Manitoba grain merchandising firm Delmar Commodities. Ceres announced Friday it has completed the deal to buy all of Delmar’s shares for about $15.25 million in cash and assume about $7.6 million in existing term debt. The Minneapolis firm […] Read more
Blizzard forces closure of some U.S. grain processors, elevators
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — A second “bomb cyclone” blizzard hitting the United States was limiting the movement and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat around the Midwest and Plains on Thursday. Grain trader Cargill said it was closing three of its grain handling facilities in Minnesota, two in South Dakota and one in Nebraska on […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn, soy up a bit on weather woes, trade hopes
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn and soybean futures closed higher on Wednesday on light technical buying as a blizzard bore down on portions of the Plains and Midwest, threatening to delay plantings, analysts said. Wheat futures fell, recording a fifth straight lower close, as traders focused on plentiful world supplies. Chicago Board of Trade […] Read more
U.S. farmers face devastation following Midwest floods
Reading Time: 4 minutes Winslow, Neb./Chicago | Reuters — Midwestern farmers have been gambling they could ride out the U.S.-China trade war by storing their corn and soybeans anywhere they could — in bins, plastic tubes, in barns or even outside. Now, the unthinkable has happened. Record floods have devastated a wide swath of the Farm Belt across Iowa, […] Read more
Manitoba farmers unfazed by flood reports
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — As experts forecast a spring flood to hit southern Manitoba, farmers in the Red River Valley won’t be caught off guard. Manitoba’s Emergency Measures Organization held flood preparedness seminars in Morris, Brandon, and Selkirk throughout the week of March 11. Topics covered included the forecast, flood outlook, preparedness and response and disaster financial […] Read more
SunOpta sheds U.S. Midwest organic corn, soy business
Reading Time: 2 minutes Organic food firm SunOpta Inc. has stepped out of the U.S. organic corn and soybean business in a $66.5 million deal with Minnesota-based organic startup Pipeline Foods. Mississauga-based SunOpta announced Monday it closed a deal with Pipeline last Friday for the Canadian firm’s organic and “specialty” soy and corn operations, which include five plants in […] Read more
North Dakota still on lookout for Palmer amaranth
Reading Time: < 1 minute CNS Canada –– Officials in North Dakota continue to hunt down suspicious plants in a bid to keep the aggressive weed Palmer amaranth from establishing there. Palmer amaranth, a pigweed species, made its first confirmed appearance in North Dakota last month, in a soybean field in McIntosh County, in the south-central area of the state. […] Read more
Minnesota corn, soy crop prospects hurt by summer floods – crop tour
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ghent, Minn. | Reuters – Corn yields in Minnesota are likely to be below average as excessive rains and flooding early in the growing season impeded crops, scouts on an annual tour through top U.S. production states said on Thursday. Soybean yield potential was also hampered by overly wet conditions, which delayed planting in many areas and forced […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
