Insights and Stories on Beef

Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector

Apr. 28, 2020 at 3:24 pm CDT

Chicago | Reuters — With the pandemic hobbling the meat-packing industry, Iowa farmer Al Van Beek had nowhere to ship his full-grown pigs to make room for the 7,500 piglets he expected from his breeding operation. The crisis forced a decision that still troubles him: He ordered his employees to […]

Klassen: Yearling prices stay sluggish, calves hold value

Apr. 27, 2020 at 10:38 pm CDT

By Jerry Klassen

Tyson to shutter beef facility as workers tested

Apr. 23, 2020 at 3:20 pm CDT

By Reuters

EU sets out COVID-19 support for farmers

Apr. 22, 2020 at 5:18 pm CDT

By Reuters

Canada sees no beef shortage, but prices may rise due to coronavirus

Apr. 21, 2020 at 2:55 pm CDT

By Kelsey Johnson Rod Nickel

Cargill to temporarily idle High River beef plant

Apr. 20, 2020 at 5:07 pm CDT

Reuters — Cargill Ltd. said Monday it had begun the process of temporarily idling its beef plant at High River, Alta. because of the COVID-19 outbreak as provincial health officials said hundreds of workers at the plant had become infected. In her daily media update, Alberta chief medical officer Deena […]

By Kelsey Johnson

Third major Alberta beef plant confirms COVID-19 cases

Apr. 16, 2020 at 5:20 pm CDT

UPDATED, April 17 — Cases of COVID-19 have now been confirmed at three of Alberta’s major beef packing plants. Three cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Wednesday at the JBS beef packing plant in Brooks, said Tom Hesse, Local 401 president with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada. JBS Canada […]

By Alexis Kienlen

U.S. livestock: Cattle futures rise as traders hope slaughterhouses reopen soon

Apr. 14, 2020 at 10:34 pm CDT

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. cattle futures rose Tuesday in a turnaround from recent losses, supported by a temporary easing of concerns over meat plants’ shutting due to cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus among workers, analysts said. Livestock markets have been fixated on shutdowns of meat plants because processing disruptions […]

By Tom Polansek

‘Elbow to elbow:’ North America’s meat plant workers fall ill, walk off jobs

Apr. 13, 2020 at 11:21 pm CDT

Chicago/Winnipeg | Reuters — At a Wayne Farms chicken processing plant in Alabama, workers recently had to pay the company 10 U.S. cents a day to buy masks to protect themselves from the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to a meat inspector. In Colorado, nearly a third of the workers at a […]

By Rod Nickel Tom Polansek

China’s beef imports to drop as hotpot comes off the boil

Apr. 12, 2020 at 7:13 pm CDT

Beijing | Reuters — Just over two months ago, the Jinyuan Fucheng Beef Hotpot restaurant in northern Beijing had a long line of customers waiting outside its doors almost every night of the week. Now, the restaurant that can seat 800 barely fills 20 tables a day, with most people […]

By Dominique Patton Sophie Yu