(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

U.S. livestock: CME live, feeder cattle ease to 16-month low

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures on Thursday hit a 16-month bottom, falling to contract lows for a second straight session, on lower wholesale beef values and further cash price weakness, traders said. Spot-October closed 0.75 cent/lb. lower at 136.85 cents, and earlier marked a contract low of 136.525 (all figures […] Read more

Four steps to direct marketing beef

Four steps to direct marketing beef

News Roundup from the August 2015 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Most ranchers in Canada keep their attention focused on what they do best: breeding and raising healthy, high-quality cattle. The slaughtering, processing, and sale to end consumers are things they ordinarily leave to other people. Some ranchers, however, market a part of their beef output directly to consumers, cutting out the middlemen of the cattle […] Read more


Nutritional considerations for the cow-calf herd during drought

Nutritional considerations for the cow-calf herd during drought

News Roundup from the August 2015 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Lower-than-normal seasonal rainfall this spring and summer has led to severe drought conditions throughout much of Alberta and Saskatchewan resulting in poor growth of annual cereals, crops for hay and pasture. This will have obvious implications on the nutrition and management of the cow-calf herd during the grazing season and into the winter as preserved […] Read more

Doug Sawyer in a pasture with cattle

Animal care lives here

Driving down the road to the family’s old homestead established in 1903 near Pine Lake, Alta., Doug Sawyer stops to look at the corrals he helped design and build when he was a kid. “We thought about the ways animals move and how to make it work for us by rounding out corners and letting […] Read more


(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

U.S. livestock: CME live, feeder cattle sink to new contract lows

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures slumped to fresh contract lows on Wednesday, and October dropped by the three-cent-per-pound daily price limit, on liquidation ahead of possibly lower cash prices later this week, traders said. Spot-October closed at 137.6 cents, its new contract low (all figures US$). December ended at 139.475 […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Study alleges U.S. fast food still mostly raised on antibiotics

Los Angeles | Reuters –– Most large U.S. fast-food chains still serve meat from farm animals that have been routinely fed antibiotics, consumer groups said in a new report, which concluded that many companies have not yet laid out plans to curb the practice. Subway, Starbucks, KFC and Domino’s Pizza were among the industry leaders […] Read more


(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Yukon to help cover livestock vets’ travel costs

The Yukon government has launched a pilot program to help cover veterinarians’ travel and service expenses for farm calls. The territory government on Tuesday announced it will accept up to 30 farmers for the pilot of the Veterinary Services Program, running from now to the end of March 2016. The program will reimburse participating veterinarians […] Read more




cattle in a feedlot

Tight numbers a concern for livestock marketers

The bloom may soon come off the rose for record-high cattle prices as economic indicators in the United States suggest a coming slowdown in consumer beef demand. That was the message from commodity market analyst Jerry Klassen to the Livestock Market Association of Canada’s annual convention in Winnipeg earlier this summer. A roaring bull market […] Read more