Category: Meat Markets

The World Trade Organization has given Canada and Mexico the go-ahead to retaliate against the U.S. for the discrimination caused by American country of origin meat labeling rules. The arbitrators’ decision issued Monday gave Canada permission to implement retaliatory tariffs worth up to C$1.055 billion per year. While the approved figure is less than the C$3.1 billion… Read More

In this episode of the Beef Market Update, Gateway Livestock’s Anne Wasko joins Shaun Haney in-studio for an update on the extreme volatility in the beef market since September. The duo talk about the changing market, sluggish U.S. exports, diminishing Canadian feeder cattle exports (down 67% since July) and the aggressive inventory expansion efforts of… Read More

Cattle markets, led by the futures in Chicago, took another tumble this week. “It’s been discouraging, disappointing, but again markets have shown us this this fall, when they make a move, it tends to be pretty violent or erratic,” says Anne Wasko of Gateway Livestock in this latest Beef Market Update. “We don’t seem to move… Read More

Manitoba’s newest slaughter plant is up and running, although the facility north of Carman is still waiting for the stamp that would make it the first federally-inspected plant in the province with significant beef capacity in three decades. True North Foods is currently processing 80 to 100 head of cattle and bison per week, with… Read More

We’re not entirely sure how the Beef Market Update started and ended with turkey and the Jays, but the real meat of this week’s podcast centres around how fed cattle prices have dropped, with both the feeder and calf markets following suit. On what we can expect for the rest of the year in the… Read More

It’s an interesting market for beef producers. While fed cattle are still struggling to find their market low, feeder animals are well above last year’s prices. And cow/calf producers may be feeling relieved, but will good margins be enough to persuade herd expansion? We hand Shaun Haney a bar of soap for this mid-September edition of the Beef… Read More

Where were we just one year ago? The Canadian dollar sat at 92 cents U.S. and cattle prices were at all-time highs. Those price levels have since been passed, to everyone’s surprise, but the dollar has taken an absolute beating in just a year’s time. Anne Wasko, of Gateway Livestock, joins RealAgriculture’s Lyndsey Smith for… Read More

The closure of two packing plants in Ontario last year has forced producers to look for hook space at processors outside the province. The uncertainty in demand is hurting confidence in the industry, suggests Guelph-based livestock and meat market analyst Kevin Grier. At the start of 2014, Ontario’s federally-inspected slaughter capacity stood at around 95,000 head… Read More

As summer begins its last hurrah and ranchers anticipate the fall run, the underlying factors of supply and demand are still supporting cattle prices. But very large, global shifts in markets and economic stability are causing all sorts of fallout for grain and oil markets — how long before those macro trends pressure cattle prices?… Read More

It’s tough to talk about the cattle markets and not focus solely on the demand side which, if we’re being honest, has been nothing short of impressive. But price is a function of two components — supply being the balance to demand. While Canada’s beef herd continues to contract, ranchers in the United States have… Read More