Insights and Stories on COVID-19

U.S. livestock: Hog futures drop as China tightens food import restrictions

Jun. 22, 2020 at 5:54 pm CDT

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. lean hog futures retreated on Monday, with actively traded nearby contracts sinking more than three per cent and hitting life-of-contract lows amid worries about pork exports to China, which has stepped up oversight of imported goods due to COVID-19. China’s customs authority said on Sunday […]

Mexico to resume sending farmworkers to Canada after safety agreement

Jun. 22, 2020 at 3:34 am CDT

By Reuters

U.S. livestock: Futures drop ahead of USDA data

Jun. 19, 2020 at 4:23 pm CDT

By Christopher Walljasper

TFW program to be overhauled after COVID-19 outbreaks on farms

Jun. 19, 2020 at 2:43 pm CDT

By Rod Nickel

Food exporters to China asked to declare produce coronavirus-free

Jun. 19, 2020 at 10:20 am CDT

By Dominique Patton

Uruguayan shearers flown in to relieve sweltering Spanish sheep

Jun. 19, 2020 at 10:04 am CDT

Villafale, Spain | Reuters — Brought to Spain on a special flight amid the coronavirus lockdown, some 250 Uruguayan sheep shearers race against time to shear millions of Spanish sheep as sweltering summer temperatures hit. The Uruguayan shearers come to Spain every year, where farmers value them for their skills, […]

By Juan Medina

Fall quota level based on ‘rebound’ in chicken demand

Jun. 18, 2020 at 10:22 pm CDT

A relatively small tweak to national chicken quota allocation has been set for much of this autumn, following a stretch of heavy pandemic-related cuts. At a Chicken Farmers of Canada meeting Tuesday, national allocation for quota period A-165 (Aug. 30 to Oct. 24, 2020) was set at minus two per […]

By Dave Bedard

U.S. livestock: Cattle futures, beef prices decline

Jun. 18, 2020 at 5:26 pm CDT

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. live cattle futures fell Thursday as boxed beef prices tumbled under pressure from rising production. Beef output has increased as meat companies increase slaughtering after temporarily closing processing plants in April and May because of outbreaks of the COVID-19 coronavirus among workers. Processors killed an […]

By Tom Polansek

Hog sector hit hard by pandemic

Jun. 17, 2020 at 6:14 pm CDT

MarketsFarm — COVID-19 has hit the hog sector hard, with the double-edged sword of large supplies and reduced demand weighing heavily on the market. “The prospect of profitability at current forward prices and at current cash prices is nil… and there’s really no prospect of making anything this year,” said […]

By Phil Franz-Warkentin

COVID-19 knocks Agribition off 2020 calendar

Jun. 17, 2020 at 5:07 pm CDT

Another of the Prairies’ major agricultural exhibitions has removed itself from the 2020 schedule. The 50th edition of Canadian Western Agribition, which was scheduled for Nov. 30 to Dec. 5 this year at Regina’s Evraz Place exhibition park, has been postponed to Nov. 22-27, 2021. Organizers of the not-for-profit event […]