Chicago | Reuters — Tyson Foods in June will switch its retail line of company-branded chicken products to birds raised without any antibiotics, a top executive said on Tuesday, accelerating the meat sector’s shift away from the drugs. The change will make Tyson, which is the largest U.S. chicken processor, into the world’s leading producer […] Read more
Tyson accelerates shift away from antibiotics in chicken
Tyson reveals subpoena linked to alleged price fixing
Reuters — Tyson Foods disclosed on Monday it has received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission following allegations it conspired with rivals for years to fix chicken prices. The chicken sector, which is dominated by a handful of large meat companies, has come under increased scrutiny over the past year as customers […] Read more
As Trump meets biotech CEOs, farm advisers fret over empty USDA spot
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has left the agriculture secretary as the last department head to be named to his cabinet, while a meeting with the chief executives of two agribusiness giants gave a hint at a roster of farm issues the incoming president will face. Trump met on Wednesday with the […] Read more
USDA finds bird flu in Montana wild duck
Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday it had detected a type of bird flu in a wild duck in central Montana that appeared to match one of the strains found during an outbreak of the disease in 2014 and 2015 that led to the deaths of millions of chickens. […] Read more
U.S. grains: Soybeans rise from one-month low
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures rose on Wednesday as the market rebounded from its lowest level in nearly a month amid lingering concerns about risks from unfavourable crop weather in South America. Corn and wheat futures hit their lowest levels in more than two weeks under pressure from large supplies and technical selling. […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn nears one-month low after USDA raises harvest estimate
Chicago/Reuters – U.S. corn futures slid on Wednesday to their lowest level in almost a month and soybean futures weakened after the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised its domestic harvest estimates from already record-high levels. In a monthly report, the USDA said farmers will grow 15.226 billion bushels of corn this year, with an average […] Read more
CME mulls cash settlement for volatile cattle market
Chicago | Reuters –– CME Group is considering switching to a cash settlement process for its live cattle futures, a managing director said Thursday, as traders continued to complain about extreme volatility. Dave Lehman, managing director of commodity research and product development, said discussions about the new settlement procedure were part of an all-encompassing review […] Read more
Millions of chickens reported dead in Hurricane Matthew floods
Chicago | Reuters — Flooding from Hurricane Matthew has killed up to five million poultry birds in North Carolina, most of them chickens, the state’s top environmental official said Wednesday. Donald van der Vaart, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, also told Reuters that some pits that hold hog waste on farms […] Read more
Smithfield to shutter major hog plant against Matthew
Chicago | Reuters — Smithfield Foods will shutter its hog processing facility, the world’s largest, on Saturday to protect employees in North Carolina from Hurricane Matthew, industry sources said on Friday, as farmers braced for the storm’s potential lashing. Matthew has fueled concerns about the safety of livestock and farm workers along the coast from […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn jumps on positioning, new signals of feed demand
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures jumped Friday on quarter-end positioning and government crop data that signalled livestock producers had not cut back on feeding the grain in favour of wheat, as some traders had expected. Prices rose after the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a quarterly crop report, said 1.738 billion bushels of […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
