(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

U.S. livestock: CME live cattle sag with initial cash prices

Chicago | Reuters –– Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures finished lower on Friday after traders pocketed profits following lower preliminary prices for market-ready (cash) cattle, traders said. Spot-August futures closed down 0.4 cent/lb. at 148.45 cents, and October one cent lower at 146.85 cents (all figures US$). Cash cattle traded lightly in Texas at […] Read more


production floor of beef packing plant

Beef packers struggle for supply numbers

Beef packers on both sides of the border are struggling to buy cattle to run their plants efficiently

Few producers shed a tear when they hear of beef packers’ struggles. U.S. producers for years riled against packer consolidation, captive supply and any other perceived evil they thought packers perpetrated on the industry. Canadian producers remember only too well the large profits packers made after BSE crushed live cattle prices across the country. I […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

KFC faces pressure after McDonald’s says no antibiotics in chicken

Los Angeles/Chicago | Reuters — KFC, the world’s largest chain of fried chicken restaurants, may face pressure from consumer and environmental groups to change how its poultry are raised after McDonald’s said it would switch to chicken raised without human antibiotics. McDonald’s will phase out chicken raised with antibiotics that are important to human health […] Read more


cattle in a feedlot

Sustainability is in sight

The world agrees on a definition

As we look ahead to 2015 I imagine most of you are anticipating, or hoping, for a repeat of 2014. We can’t always see what lies ahead, but in at least one small aspect I’m pretty confident that you are going to hear the word sustainability crop up in conversations a lot more in the […] Read more