This week’s Beef Market Update might be the most positive report we’ve posted in three very long months. In this week’s episode, Anne Wasko, of the Gateway Livestock Exchange, joins Shaun Haney to catch up on the early summer numbers ahead of a holiday weekend. To start off in the green, Canadian slaughter data for… Read More
July 1st saw the implementation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and at the end of all the negotiations, Canada’s dairy industry has ended up as one of the largest losers of the deal. “The USMCA has some serious repercussion for our dairy industry here in Canada where they have added an additional 3.9 per cent… Read More
Looking back even just six weeks ago, few would have thought it would be possible to be back at the cattle processing levels that we currently are in Canada and the U.S. Anne Wasko, of the Gateway Livestock Exchange, says that many changes have occurred over the past few weeks during the face of COVID-19…. Read More
We hear from Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange every other Friday in our Beef Market Update, but today we’re going in depth in this Thursday edition of RealAg LIVE! Anne joins host Shaun Haney to talk prices, markets, volatility, and so much more. (Summary available below the video) The boxed beef price has… Read More
Live cattle futures have been slowly chipping way at the drastic declines experienced earlier this year due to COVID-19. In the last 30 days, the June cattle future has climbed $15.45 to just under $100. At its lowest point, in early April, the June future was $76.60. With U.S. cash trading between $115 and $120… Read More
Canada and the U.S. have experienced very similar paths of food system disruption due to COVID-19. Both countries have seen the fall in restaurant demand and packers going offline, followed by milk dumping, animals being euthanized, and consumers hyperventilating over shortages of toilet paper and ground beef. Although they’ve experienced the same impacts and stress… Read More
Alberta’s agriculture minister is sharing new information regarding the cattle set-aside program that’s being rolled out to address the backlog of cattle as processing capacity has been limited by COVID-19. A couple of weeks ago, the Alberta government announced they would be providing provincial funding in addition to the federal AgriRecovery funds for the set-aside… Read More
There is no shortage of issues to discuss in the ag commodity complex, and our latest edition of RealAg LIVE! is here to cover the latest in market news, and answer everything you’re wondering regarding the futures. On this Thursday edition of RealAg LIVE!, host Shaun Haney is joined by Zaner Ag Hedge’s Chief Ag… Read More
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has created a temporary ministerial exemption process that opens the door to inter-provincial movement of meat and poultry products from establishments that are not federally-licensed. Normally, meat from provincially-inspected facilities is not allowed to be sold beyond a province’s boundary, but the federal agency is offering an exemption if… Read More
Exports are so important to the Canadian beef industry, and early 2020 was shaping up to be a record year for global demand. Then, COVID-19 happened. Statistics Canada recently released the January to March numbers for Canadian beef exports, and as Brenna Grant, manager of research services for CanFax, explains, there is evidence of COVID-19… Read More
It has been a real struggle for meat packers to hold or build slaughter capacity during the COVID-19 outbreak. Not too long ago analysts thought slaughter levels would not increase to 80% of capacity until mid summer but in both Canada and the U.S., the weekly slaughter is climbing back faster than first thought. The… Read More
While announcing the details of the new Coronavirus Food Assistance Program to assist livestock and grain producers, U.S. President Donald Trump dropped a shocker on the North American cattle industry. “I read yesterday where we take some cattle in from other countries, we have trade deals. I think you should look at terminating those deals,”… Read More
Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Minister David Marit has announced $10 million in funding to help livestock producers manage the impacts of COVID-19 related market disruptions. $5 million will go towards Saskatchewan’s share of the costs associated with participation in the national AgriRecovery set-aside program announced by the federal government May 5. The federal government is covering 60%… Read More
It has been a very difficult two months for beef producers in Canada due to the COVID-19 market disruption, but they are not alone. At the centre of the plant shutdowns has been the packing plant workers, hundreds of whom have fallen ill or not known if it was really safe to go to work…. Read More
The last two months have been a roller coaster of shifting food demand, tanking farm-level prices, and closed processing plants as a result of COVID-19. As ranchers, feedlot operators, processors, and food retailers navigate the pandemic, tensions are high as some points in the value chain receive top prices while ranchers are hurting. Jayson Lusk,… Read More