Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures finished Monday’s session down by their three cents/lb. daily price limit after late Friday’s cash prices fell short of expectations, traders and analysts said. Spot December finished at 127.675 cents/lb., and February at 129.65 cents (all figures US$). Live cattle’s trading limit will be expanded […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME live cattle tumble limit down
Klassen: Feedlots curb buying interest
Despair is the price one pays for setting an impossible aim. Given the phone calls over the past week, producers have been expecting something the market cannot offer. Western Canadian feeder cattle prices were under severe pressure, with 700-plus-pound cattle down $8-$12 from seven days earlier; calves under 700 lbs. traded $4-$8 below week-ago levels. […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Heavy meat supplies sour CME cattle, hog futures
Chicago | Reuters –– Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle futures fell sharply on Friday, rounding out the week on a sour note as traders sought cover amid a steep downturn in wholesale beef prices. CME live cattle and feeder cattle futures gave back much of the gains they had made in the past two sessions, after […] Read more
RENN Mill Center buys the Jiffy line of ag products
Lacombe-area company will now build and sell Jiffy bale shredders, hay rakes and harrow drawbars
Reading Time: < 1 minute RENN Mill Center Inc. has purchased the manufacturing and distribution rights to the popular Jiffy brand of agriculture equipment, which includes the Jiffy bale shredder, hay rake and harrow drawbar. “We’ve been wanting to expand our product line for a while now,” says RENN president Doug Hilsabeck. “We’ve been looking for a brand of equipment […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME live cattle, hogs continue gains for second day
Chicago | Reuters — Livestock futures traders continued to hunt for cover on their short positions Thursday, resulting in Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle futures climbing a second day after prices slid to contract lows earlier this week. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange saw live cattle and feeder cattle futures on Wednesday bounce back strongly from contract […] Read more
Alltech to buy up Canadian feed firm Masterfeeds
Animal nutrition firm Alltech is set to make itself one of Canada’s top animal food and livestock feed players, with a deal in hand to buy the stake in Masterfeeds it doesn’t already own. Alltech, a Lexington, Kentucky-based international firm in aggressive acquisition mode, announced Tuesday it will buy all outstanding shares of Masterfeeds, Inc. […] Read more
Trimble to buy consulting firm Agri-Trend
GPS and precision farming firm Trimble is set to buy the Canadian operator of North America’s largest network of independent agricultural consultants. Publicly traded, U.S.-based Trimble, which specializes in GPS and other location services, including the collection and management of on-farm data and services for precision farming, announced Tuesday it will buy Red Deer-based, privately-held […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Technical trading, holiday fears sour hog, cattle futures
Chicago | Reuters –– The Chicago Mercantile Exchange saw all of its live cattle and all but two feeder cattle futures contracts fall by the daily trading limit on Monday, pressured by technical selling and weakening wholesale beef prices, traders and industry analysts said. Meanwhile, CME lean hog contracts continued their slump on Monday, dropping […] Read more
Klassen: Quality calves support feeder market
They say a sudden windfall can provide a false expectation of future performance. This is definitely true of the cattle feeding business. Western Canadian feeder cattle prices continued on a mixed volatile tone over the past week, trading $10 lower to as much as $10 higher. Feedlot operators shrugged off the sharply lower live cattle […] Read more
Hay! Guess who’s hiring a forage researcher?
New forage research job at Beaverlodge is a pleasant surprise after years of funding cutbacks
Reading Time: 4 minutes The forage industry has been asking for more researchers for a long time and finally, it seems the federal government has listened. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada recently issued a job posting for a forage researcher at its Beaverlodge research farm. It’s a term job — running until 2018 — but a step in the right […] Read more