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Pork

CME June 2020 live cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)
Livestock, Markets

U.S. livestock: Cattle, hog futures climb with wholesale meat prices

About 20 North American meat plants offline

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Chicago | Reuters — U.S. live cattle futures closed higher on Friday after touching a three-week top, buoyed by firm cash cattle values and surging wholesale beef prices as labor shortages slow the U.S. slaughter pace, traders said. New-month buying by speculators may have also lent support, they said. Chicago Mercantile Exchange June live cattle
Workers in the JBS beef plant at Brooks, Alta. appear in a screen shot from a 2018 corporate video. (JBS Canada video screengrab via YouTube)
Livestock

As meat plant infections rise, Canada lets packers choose when to close

Beef plants at heart of Alberta's largest COVID-19 community outbreaks

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Winnipeg | Reuters — In Cargill’s High River, Alta. plant, supplier of more than one-third of Canada’s beef, 391 workers were sick with COVID-19 when the company suspended operations, according to provincial health officials. But Maple Leaf Foods decided to idle a poultry plant for eight days, in Brampton, Ont., after just three workers were
CME June 2020 lean hogs with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)
Livestock, Markets

U.S. livestock: Hogs climb on strong pork exports, wholesale prices

Packer margins, wholesale beef prices support live cattle futures

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Chicago | Reuters — U.S. lean hog futures rose on Thursday as bullish weekly U.S. pork export data and rising wholesale prices overshadowed worries about a slowdown in the U.S. hog slaughter pace backing up hog supplies, traders said. “You’ve got a combination of export sales being strong (and) the wholesale market trading very firm
(Video screengrab from Conestoga Meats via YouTube)
Hogs, Livestock, Markets

Major Ontario pork packer expects to re-open Monday

Conestoga Meats went offline April 27

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The hog slaughter and processing plant billed as Ontario’s second-biggest pork producer expects to be back in business Monday after a week-long COVID-19-related shutdown. Conestoga Meats, based at Breslau, just east of Kitchener, notified hog farmers and shippers on Friday that it would suspend “most operations” during the week of April 27 to May 1,
CME June 2020 lean hogs with Bollinger (20,2) bands. (Barchart)
Livestock, Markets

U.S. livestock: Hogs mostly lower as packing-plant woes persist

Backlog concerns drag on cattle

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Chicago | Reuters — U.S. lean hog futures closed mostly lower on Wednesday, setting back from a one-month high set a day earlier in the benchmark June contract as traders mulled the implications of a presidential order for U.S. meat packing plants to remain open, traders said. President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered meat-processing plants
JBS’ Worthington plant, when fully operational, produces pork for retail sale under the Swift brand. (JBSsa.com)
Hogs, Livestock

JBS reopens Minnesota pork plant to cull pigs

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Chicago | Reuters — Meat producer JBS said Wednesday it was reopening a Minnesota pork plant shuttered by the pandemic to euthanize up to 13,000 pigs a day for farmers, not to produce meat for consumers. U.S. farmers have been forced to cull livestock as they run short of space to house animals after some
CME June 2020 lean hogs with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)
Livestock, Markets

U.S. livestock: Hogs pare gains as Trump plans order to keep meat plants open

Cattle up with wholesale beef prices

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Chicago | Reuters — U.S. lean hog futures hit a four-week peak on Tuesday on worries about tightening pork supplies as the coronavirus shutters meat processing plants, but the market pared gains on news that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to order such sites to stay open. June lean hog futures on the Chicago Mercantile
Cemetery employees fill in the grave of JBS USA meat packing plant employee Saul Sanchez on April 15, 2020 at Greeley, Colorado, following his death from COVID-19. (Photo: Reuters/Jim Urquhart)
Livestock, Markets

Trump orders U.S. meat processing plants to stay open

Advocates call for protective equipment for plant workers

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Washington/Chicago | Reuters — President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered meat-processing plants to stay open to protect the food supply in the United States, despite concerns about coronavirus outbreaks, drawing a backlash from unions that said at-risk workers required more protection. With concerns about food shortages and supply chain disruptions, Trump issued an executive order
Hog farmer Mike Patterson walks through one of his barns at Kenyon, Minnesota, about 70 km south of St. Paul, on April 23, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Nicholas Pfosi)
Livestock, Markets

Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector

"We have to have less hogs somehow"

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Chicago | Reuters — With the pandemic hobbling the meat-packing industry, Iowa farmer Al Van Beek had nowhere to ship his full-grown pigs to make room for the 7,500 piglets he expected from his breeding operation. The crisis forced a decision that still troubles him: He ordered his employees to give injections to the pregnant
(Shadowinternet/E+/Getty Images)
Hogs, Livestock

Pork sector’s calls for aid heard, not yet answered

Federal government says it's examining "all options"

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Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau’s office said late last week the government is working “around the clock” to respond to the pandemic’s impact on farmers and agri-food businesses. But there was no commitment to the direct support Canadian pork industry officials say is now necessary to carry the sector through a crisis which has led

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