Category: Meat Markets

Cattle markets have held their own over the last week, with prime grilling season underway heading into the Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. and Father’s Day around the corner. U.S. cattle prices this week ranged from one to three dollars higher, from south to north, explains Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange in… Read More

Olymel says it has “made the difficult decision” to reduce its hog operations in Western Canada due to continued financial losses and uncertainty in pork markets. Approximately 80 employees at five sow facilities in Alberta (Smoky Sow/Dev, Pinnacle 1, Pinnacle 2, Dynacrest 1 and Dynacrest 2) and one farm in Saskatchewan (Kelsey) have been given… Read More

The road back to profitability for the pork sector is likely long and difficult as Canadian producers continue to face a troublesome combination of declining domestic demand, fewer opportunities in export markets, and the spectre of tougher U.S. animal welfare regulations that could drive prices lower. It all adds up to tough times for pork… Read More

The immediate impact of finding a BSE-positive cow in Alberta in 2003 was swift and brutal. Overnight, Canada’s export market evaporated and prices for cattle, especially older animals, tanked. As we look back on the decades that have followed, the longer-lasting impacts have been monumental, but not necessarily as clear. To dive in to what… Read More

As the growing season really gets going across North America, we’re starting to see a little more hope on where the grass is growing, and there’s a bit more optimism out there in the pasture — especially in southwestern Saskatchewan, which has faced multiple years of hard drought and where this week’s Beef Market Update… Read More

If ever there was to be an all-good-news edition of the Beef Market Update, it may just be this week. Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange runs through the numbers south of the border, in the finished and feeder markets, and all the way down to grass cattle and the news is good to… Read More

Even though many are looking at the futures market for ’23 new crop prices, and there’s a little more positivity across drought areas in terms of upcoming precipitation, “what’s going in the mouths of cattle today is still old crop.” So, as a result, we’re going to have to wait until the back half of… Read More

The story for the last couple of weeks in the cattle markets has been the cash market, and how it is responding on both sides of the border. In both the U.S. and Canada, the cash market has been extremely positive, says Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange. In this week’s episode of the… Read More

Often when talking about the cattle markets, we talk about carcass weight, but sometimes without even completely realizing what it means or what the average weight can tell us. Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange says at the end of the day, we’re all selling beef tonnage — pounds of beef is what consumers… Read More

There are lots of things we are always keeping our eyes on in the cattle markets, but today, our eyes are on the fed cattle markets. Since our last Beef Market Update with Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange, the U.S. markets have taken a bit of a dive, while in western Canada we… Read More