CME June 2022 live cattle (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (pink, brown and black lines). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME cattle futures end week lower

June hogs firm, April lower

Chicago | Reuters — Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange slid on Friday to end the week lower as cash markets stalled, despite strong slaughter rates. “The weekly kill came in much larger than expected,” said Dennis Smith, commodity broker at Archer Financial. “I suspect that will change the tone of the cash […] Read more

Then-federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz (second from right) announces G3’s plan to take a majority stake in CWB in April 2015 in Winnipeg. (Dave Bedard photo)

Farmers’ CWB class action lawsuit gets certified

Suit claims federal government wrongly used farmers' money to help privatize the Wheat Board

A class action lawsuit alleging the government of Canada and G3 Canada Ltd. unlawfully used millions of farmer dollars to privatize the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) has been certified after wending its way through the courts for 10 years. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Chris Martin delivered his written judgment Tuesday in Winnipeg, clearing the […] Read more


File photo of chicks on a genetic map of a chicken. (Peggy Greb photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Avian flu hits Alberta poultry farms

Three more poultry farms, one backyard flock also infected in Ontario

Three poultry flocks in central Alberta have now joined an expanding list of Canadian commercial poultry farms hit by highly pathogenic avian influenza. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Thursday it had confirmed high-path H5N1 avian flu on Wednesday in two commercial poultry flocks in Mountain View County, between Calgary and Red Deer, and in […] Read more

CBOT May 2022 soybeans (candlesticks) with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybeans, corn firm ahead of WASDE

Wheat down, but supported by winter crop stress

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures climbed on Thursday, bolstered by eroding South American production and steady U.S. export sales. CBOT wheat and corn futures eased ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s monthly global supply and demand report due Friday, expected to reflect the potential impact of the war in […] Read more


CME June 2022 live cattle (candlesticks) with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME cattle ease on ample supply, flat cash offers

Flat cutout values drag on hogs

Chicago | Reuters — Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange fell on Thursday, pressured by ample cattle supplies that offer little incentive for packers to bid up the cash market. “The supply of market ready cattle is a little less than last year, but it’s still plentiful. It just doesn’t seem like the […] Read more

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland holds a news conference before delivering the 2022-23 budget in Ottawa on April 7, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Blair Gable)

Supply chain improvement funds pledged in federal budget

Money also added for support of TFWs, P.E.I. potato sector

The federal government’s release last week of its Emissions Reduction Plan has turned out to be the spoiler for new ag funding in Thursday’s 2022 budget — although more money is also pledged to help strengthen cross-country supply chains generally. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Thursday laid out a federal budget with about $452.3 billion […] Read more



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Alberta looks into ‘isolated’ case of PED

Feed, other objects considered possible sources

The source of what’s believed to have been an “isolated” recent case of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in southern Alberta was likely either feed or some object brought into the barn, veterinary officials say. The chief provincial veterinarian’s office said it was informed by a private veterinarian on Feb. 24 of a suspected case of […] Read more


A custom hauler spreads dairy manure on hay ground using a Husky 18000L Slimline liquid manure spreader on a farm at Wallenstein, Ont., north of Kitchener, in the spring of 2018. (Husky Farm Equipment handout photo via Reuters)

No poop for you: Manure supplies run short as fertilizer prices soar

Ontario honeywagon maker all sold out

Chicago | Reuters — For nearly two decades, Abe Sandquist has used every marketing tool he can think of to sell the back end of a cow. Poop, after all, needs to go somewhere. The Midwestern entrepreneur has worked hard to woo farmers on its benefits for their crops. Now, facing a global shortage of […] Read more

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Advance Payments Program to offer 100 per cent up front

Feds temporarily waive 60 per cent up-front limit

Canadian farmers seeking pre-production cash advances under the federal Advance Payments Program ahead of this year’s spring seeding will be able to get the entire eligible amount up front. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Wednesday announced a “temporary waiving” of the program’s usual requirement that pre-production cash advances be issued in instalments of 60 […] Read more