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

U.S. livestock: Cattle, hogs slide after three days of gains

"The workers are spooked to come to work"

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. cattle and hog futures retreated on Tuesday in a profit-taking setback after three sessions of gains that were fueled by rising meat prices and concerns about meat shortages as several packing plants have closed due to coronavirus infections among workers. Benchmark June lean hog futures corrected after gaining nearly 18

File photo of a truck arriving at a Smithfield Foods pork plant at Smithfield, Va. on Oct. 17, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Tom Polansek)

Smithfield starting to reopen Sioux Falls hog plant, union says

Major plant was shuttered by COVID-19 outbreak

Chicago | Reuters — Smithfield Foods, the world’s biggest pork processor, resumed limited operations on Monday at a massive South Dakota slaughterhouse it closed last month because of the coronavirus pandemic, the union representing plant employees said. The closure of the plant and other slaughterhouses due to coronavirus cases among employees has led to temporary



Pork producers say they’re suffering a financial crisis as COVID-19 has closed processing plants and sent the market into a tailspin.

Pork sector calls for federal ‘fire crew’ as market goes up in flames

The pork sector says it is in critical need of financial support due to market disruptions from COVID-19

Canada’s pork producers are asking for emergency federal aid as their market spirals downward. Market disruptions due to COVID-19 have landed the pork market in a bad place as of late April. Multiple plant closures in the U.S. have dried up markets for Canadian weanlings, a two-week plant closure of an Olymel facility in Quebec


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

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

About 20 North American meat plants offline

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

(Video screengrab from Conestoga Meats via YouTube)

Major Ontario pork packer expects to re-open Monday

Conestoga Meats went offline April 27

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)

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

Backlog concerns drag on cattle

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)

JBS reopens Minnesota pork plant to cull pigs

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)

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

Cattle up with wholesale beef prices

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

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)

Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector

"We have to have less hogs somehow"

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