Fresh off of one of the biggest barbecue weekends of the year in Canada and headed into another in the United States, the cattle market is paying close attention to retail sales and the effect on prices throughout the supply chain. At the same time, processing capacity has started to return following slowdowns and shutdowns… 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
Since the fall of 2019, beef packer profits have received major attention by ranchers and feedyards. Much of the discussion started after the packing plant fire in Kansas, but has exploded recently due to the results of the COVID-19 pandemic. Packers have struggled to stay online due to COVID-19 cases related to the plant, and… Read More
This is an unforgettable time in the cattle markets for ranchers and feedyards. The United States Department of Agriculture released its Cattle on Feed report for April 1, and the results are close to expectations and would be considered bullish in a “normal” market. In the United States, total cattle on feed is down 5… Read More
The value of beef cutouts has reached record highs over the last few days, as packing plant capacity has been reduced by shutdowns in the U.S. and Canada. At the same time, those shutdowns have put immense pressure on cash cattle prices. “In the U.S. for the cash cattle that are trading, they are going… Read More
U.S. President Donald Trump has unveiled his three-step plan to re-open the economy, entitled “Opening up America Again.” Along with the announcement, the president has started encouraging political allies to “liberate” certain states that have shelter-in-place (social distancing) measures currently in effect. There’s no question, the economic impact of social distancing is very evident in… Read More
Ontario’s beef producer group has asked both beef and dairy producers to hold back cull cows in an attempt to ease the pinch on beef processing capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Processing backlogs have plagued the eastern Canadian beef sector for many months due to a lack of sufficient processing capacity and plant closures, says… Read More
The fourteen day closure of an Olymel hog plant in Quebec has Ontario pork producers scrambling to find a slaughter destination for their finished hogs. Ontario producers normally ship around 20,000 pigs to Quebec for processing each week. The plant at Yamachiche, Que. and its 1000 employees have not been operating since March 29 after… Read More
Olymel has notified pork producers in Ontario who ship to its processing plants in Quebec that it intends to exercise the force majeure clause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to industry sources. By invoking the clause, the company would no longer be required to purchase market hogs under the terms of the contracts it… Read More
The reduction in gasoline usage across North America has put a death grip on ethanol producers. Plants have been scaling back production to try and stay solvent as storage capacity fills. Aside from the impact less ethanol production has on corn and utility wheat demand, livestock producers that use distillers’ dried grains (DDGs) in feed… Read More
Just two short weeks ago, no one was really sure what was ahead for the COVID-19 virus lockdown and social distancing — but now cities are ghost towns, and grocery store shelves and coolers are suspiciously absent of some key items; beef, pork, and chicken among them. A flurry of retail buying may have emptied… Read More
What a week. Frankly, the last week and even two weeks has been wild enough — let alone the last 24 hours — as the impact of COVID-19 makes its way into North American travel bans, the stock market, oil prices, the Canadian dollar and more. The volatility has been extreme. Anne Wasko, of the… Read More
If you’re looking for good news, you may not find it in the cattle markets this week. Mounting concerns over the spread of coronavirus and the global economy are starting to play a significant role. Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange is considering this a black swan event akin to the fire in Kansas… Read More
The China-U.S. mega trade deal promising big things for ag product sales has seen some of its momentum lost to the coronavirus outbreak. “It makes things way more complicated,” says Don Close, a senior analyst at RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness. “As soon as that agreement was signed, U.S. markets started to sell off, and have… Read More