Cattle liners sit empty in a Red Deer parking lot in April 2020.

Small processors alone won’t create strong supply chain, say beef producers

Beef producers from across Canada weighed in on the packing industry’s concentration during a panel organized by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association

After COVID-19 spread through the workforce of Canada’s largest beef packing plants this spring, many are asking whether the country should foster more, smaller processors. The pressure has eased somewhat, at least for now, in the beef supply chain. Canfax reports over 60,000 head were slaughtered the last week of May, and the backlog of […] Read more

Amanda Brodhagen is a young beef producers from Stratford, Ontario

Challenging times bring opportunities to connect with customers

A young beef producer shares how her family is finding opportunities for business and consumer engagement during the COVID-19 crisis.

Despite the challenges currently facing Canadian agriculture among other sectors, Amanda Brodhagen is determined to stay positive. While much about the ongoing situation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic worries Brodhagen, this young beef producer reminds herself things could be much worse. In that light, she’s choosing to focus on the opportunities it presents for her […] Read more


File photo of Smithfield Foods’ pork plant at Sioux Falls, S.D. on April 16, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

U.S. meatpacking workers often absent after plants ordered to reopen

"There's still so many risks"

Chicago/Washington | Reuters — Smithfield Foods is missing about a third of its employees at a South Dakota pork plant because they are quarantined or afraid to return to work after a severe coronavirus outbreak, according to the workers’ union. Tyson Foods was forced to briefly close its Storm Lake, Iowa plant — a month […] Read more

CME August 2020 live cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Futures up as meat production grows

Live cattle up off last week's lows

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. live cattle futures rose on Monday, after plunging to their lowest price in more than a month last week, amid signs of meat production increasing — even as cash market prices continue to strain livestock producers’ profits. Chicago Mercantile Exchange August live cattle rose 0.675 cents, to 96 cents (all […] Read more


India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks to media on the Parliament premises in New Delhi in this Nov. 18, 2019 file photo. (Photo: Reuters/Altaf Hussain)

India’s levy cut on lentils part of balancing act

Global markets had zero or little forewarning of decision

MarketsFarm — To Pulse Canada, the recent move by the Indian government to temporarily reduce the import levy on lentils from 30 to 10 per cent is part of a balancing act between competing interests. Greg Cherewyk, president of Pulse Canada, explained that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “looking after the needs of a politically […] Read more

CME August 2020 live cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Live cattle futures touch one-month low

Improving production pressures hog futures

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. live cattle futures dropped to their lowest price in more than a month on Friday, weighed down by expectations for increasing meat production. Beef output has improved as slaughterhouses have resumed operations after closing temporarily in April and May due to outbreaks of the new coronavirus among plant workers. The […] Read more


(CMEGroup.com)

Coronavirus threatens Chicago’s last remaining trading pits

Grain options pits remain closed, for now

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago brokers and traders worry COVID-19 will kill more of the city’s once famous shout-and-gesture trading pits. CME Group, which owns the Chicago Board of Trade, said this week that most of the pits it closed in March because of the pandemic will remain shuttered indefinitely. The news disappointed some brokers […] Read more

Nationwide, weekly harvest that had kept up in March and dipped only a bit going into April, was suddenly running two-thirds of prior harvest and year-ago levels.

Dittmer: Uncharted waters

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

Evidently, you all in Canada experienced some similar difficulties to ours. The meat supply that kept up with oversized demand in March and early April suddenly fell short in the second half of April into May. Our local meat cases in Colorado went days with virtually nothing in the way of steaks and roasts. Ground […] Read more


Workers in Cargill's High River plant on the line in the spring of 2020. The photo, taken from a company presentation, shows the plastic barriers the company has installed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

What happened in Canada’s biggest beef plants this spring?

With provinces re-opening their economies and concerns about a second wave, what can other businesses and organizations learn from Alberta's packing plants?

As Alberta shut down schools and banned children from public playgrounds in March, packing plant workers started contacting their union, said Michael Hughes. Those workers saw a contradiction between kids not being able to play on monkey bars and plant employees being told to show up for their shifts. Hughes is a senior communications and […] Read more

Cubicles installed in the break room of Cargill's High River plant to curtail COVID-19's spread among staff, taken from a company presentation during a town hall.

Writing the handbook on COVID-19

Packing plant managers, workers and union reps all found themselves responding to a crisis unlike any they’d faced before.

When Cargill has an issue, employees like to figure out a solution and share it so everyone can continue to work on, says a company executive. The coronavirus has challenged that process. “We don’t have a handbook for this,” said John Keating, Cargill’s North American managing director of business operations and supply chain for protein. […] Read more