CME April 2021 lean hogs with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Pork export sales rise, profit-taking hits hog futures

Cattle futures down while beef exports up

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures ended lower on Thursday as profit-taking overshadowed strong U.S. export demand, analysts said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a weekly report, said weekly net U.S. pork export sales were 59,600 tonnes for 2021, up 68 per cent from the prior four-week average. Weekly export […] Read more

(Sollio Co-operative Group video screengrab via YouTube)

Olymel restarting hog slaughter at Red Deer

Work to resume at pork plant this week

Meat packer Olymel plans to restart slaughter operations Thursday at one of Canada’s largest hog plants following a major outbreak of COVID-19 among employees. Olymel, an arm of Sollio Co-operative, said late Wednesday it had recalled “employees that are needed to ensure that the gradual restarting of operations goes smoothly” at its Red Deer, Alta. […] Read more


CME April 2021 lean hogs with Bollinger (20,2) bands. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Lean hogs up on new swine fever outbreak in China

April live cattle down, feeders up

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures jumped on Wednesday as China reported a new outbreak of a deadly pig disease, raising expectations that Chinese importers could increase U.S. purchases. China’s farm ministry confirmed African swine fever in piglets being illegally transported through Funing county in the southwestern province of Yunnan. The […] Read more

(Thinkstock photo)

Farm cash receipts up in 2020

Crop receipts and direct payments up, livestock slightly lower

MarketsFarm — New data from Statistics Canada on Tuesday showed Canadian farm cash receipts went up in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, on the strength of rising crop prices and exports. The total value of farm cash receipts in the country totalled $71.7 billion in 2020, an 8.1 per cent increase from the previous year. […] Read more


CME April 2021 lean hogs with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Lean hogs down off recent gains

April live cattle end up off five-week low

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures dropped 2.7 per cent on Tuesday as the market retreated from recent surges. Profit-taking has weighed on prices since most-active April hog futures reached a life-of-contract high on Thursday. Still, traders said robust Chinese demand for pork imports is underpinning the futures market. Traders are […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Canada’s year-end cattle herd continues shrinking

Slaughter beat pre-pandemic pace in second half, StatsCan says

Year-over-year contraction continued for Canada’s cattle herd at the start of 2021, while newborn piglet counts kept Canada’s hog herd on the rise during the same period, according to Statistics Canada. StatsCan on Monday reported 11.2 million cattle on Canadian farms at Jan, 1, 2021 — down one per cent from the year-earlier date and […] Read more


CME April 2021 live cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Live cattle hit five-week low

Technical selling, weaker beef prices bring pressure

Chicago | Reuters — Technical selling on Monday drove Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures to their lowest prices in more than five weeks, while lean hog futures recovered from a sell-off. The cattle market’s losses brought the most-active April contract down six per cent from a life-of-contract high reached on Feb. 16. Strong domestic […] Read more

CME April 2021 lean hogs with 20-, 40- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Hog futures drop on end-of-month profit taking

Live cattle book biggest one-day drop since November

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. hog futures dropped 2.9 per cent on Friday, with traders locking in profits from the rally on the last session of February. The loss, which pulled the market from the nearly two-year high hit on Thursday, was the biggest for hogs in percentage terms since Nov. 19. It snapped a […] Read more


CME April 2021 lean hogs with Bollinger (20,2) bands. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Hogs firm on follow-through buying, cash strength

U.S. beef export sales down on week

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live hog futures rose for the fourth day in a row on Thursday, hitting its highest since May 2019 on follow-through buying after rising the daily trading limit on Wednesday, traders said. Strength in the cash market also supported hog prices but the market closed off its high […] Read more

(Shadowinternet/E+/Getty Images)

Canada’s active PED case count dwindling

Affected Manitoba farms now all presumptive-negative

The number of active outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) on hog farms in Canada has shrunk to a few in Eastern Canada, with affected sites elsewhere now believed negative for the disease. Manitoba Pork announced Wednesday that the last of the premises to report a PED outbreak in that province in 2020 has now […] Read more