Monster storm Sandy spares U.S. livestock sector serious damage

Reuters / The monster storm that pummelled the eastern U.S. appears to have largely spared American livestock operations. Poultry producer Perdue Farms temporarily shut down four of its processing plants in the northeast and a distribution centre. The company said two of the large producers had extensive flooding while others were relying on generators to

No new funding for hog producers

Hog producers won’t be getting any additional government help. Weeks of talks between Ottawa, the provinces, and producer representatives have ended with producers being told to make use of existing support programs. “I was pretty disappointed to see that,” said Karl Kynoch, Manitoba Pork Council chairman. “This shows us that government is not taking the



Low cattle placements buoy cattle futures early this week

Low cattle placements buoy cattle futures early this week U.S. live cattle futures closed higher on Monday following Friday’s U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) cattle-on-feed report that showed cattle placed in feedlots in September at a 16-year low, analysts and traders said. Feeder cattle futures were lower on waning demand for young cattle due to


U.S. drought pushes Big Sky Farms under

Canada’s second-biggest hog producer, Big Sky Farms, has entered receivership as the North American hog industry struggles under the bruising costs of animal feed. Big Sky Farms, based in Humboldt, produces roughly one million pigs annually and accounts for 40 per cent of Saskatchewan’s total hog production. Under receivership, an outside party controls a company

Letters — for 2012-09-20 00:00:00

What about donkeys? Your Sept. 13 story on coyotes by Daniel Winters featuring comments by Gord Schroeder, director of the Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board, did not say anything about the efficacy of donkeys as anti-predator guards for sheep. Was this an oversight, or does Mr. Schroeder not regard them as worth mentioning? In this area


Variable creep feed intake confounds trial results

The benefits of creep feeding are notoriously variable, with some research trials showing a positive benefit and others showing no advantage. Even taking into account factors such as weaning age, length of the creep-feeding period, and type of diet fed, it is somewhat of a mystery why the outcomes are not more consistent. So what’s

Activists turn investors in a bid to change farm practices

The Humane Society said it plans to introduce shareholder proposals next year promoting alternatives to sow stalls


The Humane Society of the United States has bought shares in four major financial services companies in a bid to use shareholder pressure to force two of the nation’s largest pork producers to stop housing pregnant sows in gestation stalls. The animal rights group said Aug. 31 that its investment — a relatively small $3,000



China asks farmers to cut pork supply

beijing / reuters / China’s pig farmers should cut supply to stabilize pork prices, the country’s top economic planning body said June 25. The price of pork, a staple in the Chinese diet and a key factor in inflation trends snapped a four-month decline recently after tumbling more than a third from last year as