Insights and Stories on Hogs

Apr. 30, 2020 at 4:11 pm CDT

The hog slaughter and processing plant billed as Ontario’s second-biggest pork producer expects to be back in business Monday after a week-long COVID-19-related shutdown. Conestoga Meats, based at Breslau, just east of Kitchener, notified hog farmers and shippers on Friday that it would suspend “most operations” during the week of […]

By Dave Bedard

Apr. 29, 2020 at 5:45 pm CDT

Chicago | Reuters — Meat producer JBS said Wednesday it was reopening a Minnesota pork plant shuttered by the pandemic to euthanize up to 13,000 pigs a day for farmers, not to produce meat for consumers. U.S. farmers have been forced to cull livestock as they run short of space […]

By Reuters

Apr. 27, 2020 at 8:12 pm CDT

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau’s office said late last week the government is working “around the clock” to respond to the pandemic’s impact on farmers and agri-food businesses. But there was no commitment to the direct support Canadian pork industry officials say is now necessary to carry the sector through […]

By D.C. Fraser

Apr. 24, 2020 at 7:35 pm CDT

Reuters — World’s largest pork processor Smithfield Foods said Friday it will suspend operations at its Monmouth, Illinois pork processing facility next week after some employees tested positive for COVID-19, adding to already strained U.S. meat supplies. The news of some of the company’s 1,700 employees at the plant testing […]

By Reuters

Apr. 23, 2020 at 12:24 pm CDT

Canada’s hog producers seek an immediate federal cash injection equivalent to $20 per hog against a market crash that’s expected to cost their sector about $675 million overall. Officials with the Canadian Pork Council on Thursday called for Ottawa to provide further aid to hog farmers who are now expecting […]

By Dave Bedard