CME April 2023 live cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME cattle firm on bargain buying, grain values

Chicago lean hogs end day lower

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle futures firmed on Monday amid a spate of bargain buying after a recent slump in prices helped mute market impact of the bearish results of the latest Cattle on Feed report from the U.S. Agriculture Department, traders said. Cattle futures also were boosted by a sharp drop […] Read more

CME April 2023 live cattle with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME cattle end higher, rebounding ahead of USDA data

Hogs up after several days' slide

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures firmed on Friday on bargain buying a day after setting one-month lows, and as traders squared positions ahead of monthly feedlot data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the close of trading. CME February live cattle settled up 0.675 cent at 156.625 cents/lb., […] Read more


CME April 2023 live cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME live cattle futures hit one-month low

USDA data awaited; hogs down on wholesale pork price weakness

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures fell on Thursday with the most-active April contract hitting a one-month low on technical selling, soft cash cattle markets and weak wholesale beef prices, traders said. CME February live cattle settled down 0.85 cent at 155.95 cents/lb., near its 50-day moving average, after touching 155.375 […] Read more

CME April 2023 lean hogs with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME hog futures sag as pork prices hover near two-year lows

Live cattle mixed, March feeder cattle up

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures fell on Wednesday as cash hog prices remained soft and wholesale pork prices lingered near two-year lows, traders said. “We continue to search for a bottom on the hogs, and the cash market stays under pressure,” said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. Commodities. “It’s […] Read more


CME March 2023 feeder cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME cattle futures sag on long liquidation, rising grains

Hogs end mixed as traders' net long position shrinks

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures fell on Tuesday, on spillover weakness from feeder cattle futures and long liquidation as market players responded to a hefty net long position held by commodity funds, analysts said. CME February live cattle settled down 0.725 cent at 157 cents/lb. and April futures fell 0.8 […] Read more

Piglets at a hog operation in China. (KuLouKu/iStock/Getty Images)

China’s 2022 pork output highest in eight years

Average hog weights remain relatively high

Reuters — China’s pork output increased 4.6 per cent in 2022 from 2021 to reach its highest level since 2014, official data showed on Tuesday, confounding some expectations for a smaller rise. Pork output in the world’s top producer of the meat reached 55.41 million tonnes, the highest since 56.71 million tonnes recorded eight years […] Read more


A submerged and abandoned car is seen in floodwaters near a vineyard after winter storms at Forestville, California on Jan. 13, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Fred Greaves)

California rainstorms fade as death toll reaches 20

Drought to remain an issue for much of state

Reuters — The parade of atmospheric rivers that pounded California for three weeks finally faded on Monday, enabling the state to begin lengthy repairs to roads and levees as the White House announced U.S. President Joe Biden planned to survey the damage. The nine consecutive rainstorms that inundated California in succession since Dec. 26 killed […] Read more

Quebec hog producer Rene Roy is the new chairman of the Canadian Pork Council. (Cpc-ccp.com)

Canadian Pork Council names new top brass

Rene Roy elected as council's new chair

A few weeks after hiring a new executive director, members of the Canadian Pork Council have also chosen their new board chair and first vice-chair. The council on Tuesday announced it had elected Rene Roy, a hog producer from St-Jules in Quebec’s Beauce region, as its new board chair, and Scott Peters, a producer from […] Read more


CME February 2023 live cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME live cattle end firm on tight supplies, lower weights

Hogs mixed on weak cash prices, higher cutout

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures ended mostly firm on Friday, underpinned by tight supplies and as harsh winter weather in recent weeks lowered cattle slaughter weights and limited beef production, traders said. Live cattle futures prices remained bound in a recent trading range as cash cattle prices at Plains feedlot […] Read more

Flooding from the Salinas River forces the closure of a road at Salinas, California on Jan. 12, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Nathan Frandino)

California picks up debris from latest storm, braces for next

Also: Why all this rain won't end California's drought

Sacramento | Reuters — Rain-soaked Californians took advantage of a break in a weeks-long deluge to haul away dead trees, restore downed power lines and prepare new stacks of sandbags before another series of storms hits the state beginning Friday. In Monterey County along the state’s central coast, communities near the still-rising Salinas River were […] Read more