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

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,





(Photo courtesy USDA-ARS)

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

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

Ont. hog industry backed for added biosecurity measures

Ontario hog producers can expect new public funding to help step up biosecurity at “critical points,” following the arrival of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) in the province on at least two farms. The provincial government on Tuesday pledged $2 million for Ontario Pork to back “industry-wide investments to improve biosecurity measures at critical


Revised U.S. laws requiring retailers to carry specific country-of-origin labels on muscle cuts go back to a WTO compliance panel next month for review. (Canada Beef Inc. photo)

No changes seen to COOL in new U.S. Farm Bill

Canadian livestock groups’ hopes for change in the U.S. government’s mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL) laws on meat now return to the World Trade Organization (WTO), as no such changes have shown up in the U.S. Congress’ proposed new Farm Bill. U.S. Senate and House negotiators on Monday announced a bipartisan deal on a new five-year

(Photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

PED virus hits second SW Ont. hog farm

Now also suspected on third farm; industry launches task force “The reality has changed” for Ontario’s hog industry with a second, and possibly third, case of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus now found in the Chatham-Kent area. “Since the virus is highly contagious, its presence in Canada is not unexpected and more cases are expected in