U.S. budget cuts could affect trading contracts

chicago / reuters / Automatic U.S government spending cuts may affect some CME Group livestock and dairy contracts that depend on U.S. Agriculture Department grading and inspections, the exchange operator said Feb. 21. A spokesman for the CME did not say if the exchange would be forced to halt trading in some contracts due to

Managing the transition to group sow housing

There is now a growing acceptance in the Canadian pork industry that producers must eventually move away from sow stalls and towards group housing. When the new welfare codes of practice are released this summer, they will likely require that no new stall housing is built after 2014 and that existing facilities are converted to


Needle-free injection urged for swine

Manitoba Pork Council and Maple Leaf Foods urge pork producers to switch to 
needle-less injection system after needle fragments found at Brandon plant

Hog producers are being urged to consider needle-less injection systems following the discovery of needle fragments at Maple Leaf Foods’ Brandon pork plant. “I think we’re going to look at pushing that technology more and more, because the issue of food safety is very important,” said Mark Fynn, an animal care specialist with the Manitoba

Pork producers urged to be open about what happens in their barns

Pro-industry advocacy group says consumers have ‘woken up’ and are concerned 
about modern livestock practices, but willing to listen to farmers’ side of the story

Farmers may have a lot of good science in their corner, but facts alone won’t restore public trust in the food system, according to the head of an industry advocacy group. “People are asking ethical questions and we’re giving them science-based answers, because we’re not comfortable talking about the ethics,” said Terry Fleck, executive director





England’s wettest year drives down farm incomes

Reuters / Farm incomes are set to fall in England in 2012-13 with pig and dairy producers among the hardest hit as feed costs climb and the wettest year on record reduces crop yields and quality, Britain’s Farm Ministry said Jan. 31. Specialist pig farms are expected to see a 50 per cent fall in



Getting the most from herd-recording data

Banff speaker outlines key factors which he believes make the biggest contribution 
to the number of quality pigs weaned per sow.

There are literally dozens of different swine herd-recording programs. Most producers use a computer-based system to monitor performance, but do producers extract maximum value from their data? Ron Ketchem, a partner in Swine Management Services of Fremont, Nebraska, thinks not. Speaking at the Banff Pork Seminar, he described how his company analyzes data from more

Growth lies with finished products, not commodities

Canada’s once huge trade surplus in farm and food products has fallen into almost a deficit position

Canada suffers from “a commodity mentality” and needs to export more processed foods, says the chair of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. The country is also missing the boat in servicing the fast-growing economies in Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe, says Ted Bilyea, a former executive vice-president of Maple Leaf Foods. “Currently, half of