The agreement, announced on Sunday, will allow JBS to resume normal operations at the plant at a time when beef prices have set record highs due to strong demand from consumers and historically low U.S. cattle supplies.

JBS and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 union resumed negotiations last week after nearly 3,800 employees went on strike to press for higher wages and a halt to company charges for replacing protective equipment. The union said it was the first time U.S. meatpacking workers had gone on strike in four decades.

“The strike worked,” Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, said on Monday.

The agreement secures wage increases over the next two years that were about 33 per cent higher than JBS offered in a pre-strike offer, according to the union. The deal also protects workers from having to pay for personal protective equipment and safeguards them against increases in healthcare costs, the union said.

Union to withdraw unfair labour practice charges

JBS said the deal was “within the economic framework” the company presented to the union months ago, though the union chose to reallocate pension contributions to wages.

“The strike at Greeley could have been avoided,” JBS said.

The meatpacker was pleased with the deal but “expressed disappointment that UFCW Local 7 leadership chose to eliminate the historic pension benefit that was part of the national agreement negotiated last year in partnership with UFCW International,” according to a statement.

Cordova said UFCW Local 7’s proposal was stronger than the national contract that unionized meatpacking workers at multiple other plants ratified with JBS last year.

As part of the deal with workers in Greeley, the union was withdrawing seven unfair labour practice charges against JBS, the company said.

Beef prices set records this year after the nation’s cattle inventory dropped to a 75-year low. Scarce supplies forced meatpackers to pay more for cattle to slaughter, even as processors benefited from the soaring beef prices.

Ranchers delivered cattle to other JBS plants during the strike at Greeley.

Rival meatpacker Tyson Foods closed a beef plant in Nebraska this year and reduced operations at a Texas facility.

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Since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, farmers across the Midwest have capitalized on climbing prices by selling corn, soy and wheat from storage bins to ethanol producers and major traders including Archer-Daniels-Midland and Bunge.

Growers also raced to sign contracts to pre-sell crops they have not yet planted and expect to harvest this year.

The rally was a welcome surprise for farmers and allowed many to lock in modest profits to cover soaring fertilizer, chemical and seed bills, though they said the gains were not enough to end a downturn in the agricultural economy.

Dave Kestel, a farmer in Manhattan, Illinois, said he sold about 40 per cent of the corn and soybeans he harvested last year and roughly 10 per cent of what he expects to harvest in 2026. He had been paying daily charges to store last year’s crops and was eager to unload them when prices jumped.

“I was doing the farmer happy dance,” Kestel said.

Soybean futures touched a May 2024 high above US$12 per bushel (C$16.47) on the Chicago Board of Trade on Thursday. Corn futures reached the highest point since May 2025 this week, while wheat set the highest level since June 2024.

Last year, prices sagged due to ample supplies and as soy exports suffered due to President Donald Trump’s trade war with China. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has started distributing billion of dollars in aid to farmers hurt by Trump’s trade policy.

Quick to sell

Analysts said the aid strengthens balance sheets in the short term but does little to improve underlying profitability.

Farmers were quick to sell crops as they sought to stem losses and questioned how long the rally would last. Corn and soybean prices at times have each been up about six per cent from their levels since before the war began.

“We are basically filling all of our grain elevators in North America and in South America as we speak,” Julio Garros, Bunge’s chief operating officer, said during an investor event on Tuesday.

A spike in oil prices because of the war lifted prices for crops used to make biofuels. Also boosting corn prices, the conflict disrupted crucial fertilizer shipments.

The gains were generally enough to allow farmers to make money, though break-even levels vary, said Angie Setzer, partner at advisory firm Consus Ag Consulting.

“When the market rallied big, it provided a lot of opportunities that they had been waiting for,” said Setzer, whose customers sold corn, soybeans and wheat.

Some farmers took chances on the size of their fall harvests. Keaton Lyons, who farms about 1,200 acres in Rensselaer, Indiana, agreed to sell about 100,000 bushels of corn he will soon plant.

“Pricewise, I feel really good,” Lyons said. “The thing that I’m nervous about is we don’t have a kernel in the ground and we’re 65 per cent sold.”

Farmers seize opportunity

Many farmers sold much of last year’s soybean crop in late 2025, but a large share of corn remained unpriced, so the recent surge could really help corn-heavy operations, said Wesley Davis, partner at Meridian Agribusiness Advisors.

As of December 1, growers were storing 14 per cent more corn on farms than a year earlier and two more soybeans, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show.

In Waseca, Minnesota, Richard Guse, who farms about 3,500 acres with his brother and son, said he made a small profit selling about a third of his 2025 corn crop to ethanol producer Guardian Energy for US$4.25 (C$5.83) per bushel this week.

“The prices have run up in a hurry,” Guse said. “It goes down a lot faster than it comes up.”

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The labor disruption pits a workforce made up largely of immigrants against the world’s largest meat company, and it has already driven ranchers to deliver cattle to alternate facilities.

Beef prices set records this year after the nation’s cattle supply dropped to a 75-year low. Meatpackers including JBS benefit from climbing prices but also must pay record costs to buy cattle to slaughter.

JBS in November reported third-quarter profit of $581 million (C$787.4 million), down from $693 million a year earlier.

Contract not negotiated fairly says union

“While customers are paying more than they ever have, none of that is trickling down to the frontline worker that’s actually doing all the heavy work,” said Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 union that represents workers in Greeley.

JBS has participated in unfair labor practices and not negotiated fairly on a new contract over the past eight months, Cordova said. Workers sought wages that keep pace with inflation and wanted the company to stop charging them for replacing protective equipment they wear to do their jobs safely, she said.

JBS said it complies with labor laws, sought to reach a fair agreement, and charges employees for protective equipment that is lost or maliciously damaged.

“We stand by the offer we presented,” JBS said. “It is strong, fair, and consistent with the historic national contract reached in 2025.”

Last year, unionized meatpacking workers at multiple plants ratified a first-ever national contract with JBS. However, workers in Greeley already had some benefits in that contract, including sick leave, Cordova said.

JBS did not slaughter Monday

JBS said it was now adjusting cattle deliveries and processing schedules at Greeley and shifting production to other facilities to meet customer needs.

The company did not slaughter cattle at the plant on Monday. Cattle feeders said JBS canceled slaughtering in Greeley for the whole week, and one feeder said he was delivering livestock to a company facility in Cactus, Texas, instead.

“We’ve got way more kill space than finished cattle ready to slaughter,” said Corbitt Wall, a livestock market analyst for DVAuction. Ranchers will “just move them somewhere else.”

Rival meatpacker Tyson Foods closed a massive beef plant in Nebraska this year.

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The loss of grass in Oklahoma and Kansas has sent ranchers scrambling for donations of hay to feed their herds as some face the prospect of running out of supplies.

WHY IT MATTERS: Persistent drought has driven U.S. cattle supplies to their lowest numbers since the 1950s and driven prices to record highs.

Since last week, the biggest wildfire, the Ranger Road Fire, burned an estimated 283,283 acres (114,640 hectares) in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry said on Monday. It was about 65 per cent contained.

“Grass is gone,” said Collin Domer, 36, a volunteer firefighter for the Laverne Fire Department in Oklahoma who responded to the blaze.

“It’s sand. Take a sand pit and cover that over 285,000 acres.”

Cattle supplies lowest in 75 years

Other fires have burned thousands more acres in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. Some cattle perished, state and industry officials said, without estimating the number.

“There’s been a lot of cattle loss,” said Bryce Boyer, spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. “There’s been a lot of hay loss. The ones who do have cattle, a lot of them don’t have grass to feed them now.”

U.S. cattle supplies were already at their lowest level in 75 years after high prices and a persistent drought drove ranchers to send more animals to slaughter, instead of keeping them for breeding. Last year, Brazil surpassed the U.S. as the world’s top beef producer, according to industry estimates.

U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to lower beef costs for consumers. However, retail prices for ground beef set a record high of $6.75 per pound (C$9.24) in January, up 22 per cent from a year earlier, due to low supplies and strong demand from consumers, according to U.S. government data.

Cattle flee fire

Farmers cut fences to allow cattle to escape the wildfire last week, though some animals died and others suffered burns after being caught, said Heather Lansdowne, spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Veterinarians were working with ranchers to determine the best care for hurt animals, she said.

“While they were able to save a lot of cattle, those producers now don’t have anything to feed those cattle,” Lansdowne said.

Once the flames are extinguished, it may take longer than normal for pastures to be ready for grazing again depending on damage from the intense heat, said Michael Kelsey, executive vice president of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association.

“That’s a long-term issue for some of those ranches,” he said. “They’ve got to give it a little longer to recover.”

In the meantime, Domer was spearheading an effort to collect hay, feed and other supplies for ranchers. He said he received donations from as far away as Montana and Michigan.

The Kansas Livestock Association was also coordinating hay donations and said it received offers from Kansas, Wisconsin and Illinois for local ranchers.

“The grass resources have been burned up,” association spokesperson Scarlett Madinger said. “They’ve got to have something to feed their livestock immediately.”

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A White House official said in October that Trump would make such a move, evoking fury from the nation’s cattle ranchers.

Trump has faced pressure to address the issue of affordability, which helped propel Democratic candidates to several electoral victories in 2025.

U.S. beef prices set record highs last year, benefiting ranchers who largely supported Trump, due to strong consumer demand and declining cattle supplies.

Ranchers slashed the herd to its lowest level in 75 years as of January 1 following a persistent drought that burned up pastures used for grazing and hiked feeding costs, according to U.S. data.

Unlikely to significantly lower beef costs

Trump’s decision to raise the tariff rate quota on Argentine beef by 80,000 metric tons will let Argentina ship more of its beef to the U.S. at a lower rate of duty. The increase will apply only to lean beef trimmings, which are blended with domestic supplies to make hamburger meat, according to the proclamation.

“Instead of imports that sideline American ranchers, we should be focused on solutions that cut red tape, lower production costs, and support growing our cattle herd,” said Republican U.S. Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska, a major cattle-producing state.

Washington and Buenos Aires signed a broader new trade and investment agreement that will give preferential market access to U.S. goods in Argentina.

Economists have said increased U.S. imports of Argentine beef will likely be too small to significantly lower costs for grocery store shoppers, but the shipments could help improve margins for food companies.

The U.S. imported about 33,000 metric tons of Argentine beef in 2024, representing two per cent of total imports, according to government data.

— Reporting by Tom Polansek, Ismail Shakil and Bhargav Acharya

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For three years, the costs of seed, fertilizer and other farm inputs rose, while plentiful grain supplies limited profits for farmers, economists said. Then, President Donald Trump returned to office last year, sparking trade disputes that disrupted U.S. crop exports and immigration crackdowns that increased labor costs and left some farms with crops rotting in fields.

Many farmers are now bracing to potentially lose money for a fourth consecutive year. Tough credit conditions are forcing those with limited cash flows to make decisions about what acres to plant and how much fertilizer to buy, economists said.

By the numbers

Former USDA and industry officials said in a letter to U.S. lawmakers that Trump administration policies harmed farmers.

The Trump administration announced the $12 billion aid program last year, but it will only cover a fraction of farmers’ losses, agricultural economists and bankers said.

The USDA said in a statement to Reuters that Trump was using every tool available to support farmers and ensure they have what they need to continue farming operations.

U.S. Senator John Boozman, a Republican from Arkansas who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a webcast of a conference of state agriculture officials in Washington on Tuesday that farmers growing crops are “losing money, lots of money.”

Jump in operating loans

Bankers reported a nearly 40 per cent jump in new farm operating loans in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to a year earlier, according to a Federal Reserve survey.

The average size of such operating notes was 30 per cent bigger during 2025 than a year earlier, according to an analysis of the data by Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City staff.

The percentage of farmers expecting bad financial times in the next year jumped to 59 per cent in January from 47 per cent in December, according to a survey released Tuesday by Purdue University and CME Group.

The percentage of producers who thought U.S. agriculture would have widespread bad times during the next five years climbed to 46 per cent from 24 per cent a month earlier, the survey found.

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Corn futures ended slightly lower.

The drop in the dollar index, which sank near a four-year low, helped to steady grain prices after a pullback on Monday, making U.S. crops look cheaper overseas, analysts said.

On Monday, wheat futures Wv1 set a six-week high, soybeans Sv1 a four-week peak and corn Cv1 a two-week top before all three crops finished lower.

“The markets are seeing a modest rebound after yesterday’s sell-off,” CHS Hedging said in a note.

Most-active soybean futures Sv1 rose 5-1/2 cents to finish at $10.67-1/4 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, while wheat futures Wv1 closed up 3/4 cent at $5.23-1/4 per bushel.

Gains in soyoil futures helped to support soybeans, an analyst said.

“Stock markets are up, and commodity currencies are performing well against the weak U.S. dollar,” Peak Trading Research said in a note, calling the context bullish for grains.

CBOT corn Cv1 ended down 1-3/4 cents at $4.26-1/2 per bushel. Wintry weather fuelled concerns among some traders that reduced operations at U.S. ethanol plants could dent demand for the grain, analysts said.

Grain and soybean markets also remained capped by ample global supplies.

Traders expect Brazil will harvest a record soy crop and top buyer China will turn to the South American nation for imports in the coming months after a recent wave of U.S. soybean purchases. The availability of Brazil’s new crop was limited, though, with harvesting still in its early stages and advance sales by farmers relatively slow, analysts said.

“Agricultural producers in Brazil appear to be somewhat more selective in their negotiations due to what they consider to be too low prices,” Commerzbank said.

In other news, U.S. President Donald Trump travelled to the farm-state Iowaas mounting stress in the agricultural economy and delays in biofuel policy tested the patience of farmers and renewable-fuel producers.

-Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago, Daphne Zhang in Beijing, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Peter Hobson in Canberra

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Corn and soybean futures also retreated from multi-week highs.

Traders focused on the weather as temperatures remained frigid after a severe winter storm blasted the U.S. over the weekend. Extreme cold likely damaged winter wheat crops in most of Nebraska, far northwestern Kansas and northeastern Colorado, weather firm Vaisala said.

However, snow benefited winter wheat in other areas by boosting moisture levels and providing a cover to protect crops from frigid temperatures, forecasters said.

“We had more snow than we thought coming through,” said Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities.

Extensive snow cover in Russia also tempered concerns about significant damage to fields from intense cold in the world’s biggest wheat-exporting country.

Most-active CBOT wheat Wv1closed down 7 cents at $5.22-1/2 per bushel after rising earlier to the highest price since December 12 at $5.33-1/4.

“Freezing temperatures, snow and ice hit much of the U.S. over the weekend, putting some winter wheat at risk,” market intelligence platform CM Navigator said in a note. “It will take time to assess the real damage.”

Soybean futures Sv1 ended 6 cents lower at $10.61-3/4 per bushel after reaching the highest level since December 29.

Corn futures Cv1 fell 2-1/4 cents to $4.28-1/4 a bushel after reaching the highest level since January 12, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued crop data that was bearish for grain and soy prices.

The USDA’s bigger-than-expected U.S. production and stocks estimates from January 12 continued to loom over markets, analysts said.

In South America, consultancy AgRural raised its estimates for Brazil’s 2025/26 corn and soybean crops.

Rain in Argentina, a major exporter of soy products, should improve soil moisture in the province of Cordoba, according to Vaisala. Below-normal rainfall elsewhere in the country will maintain stress on soybeans and corn, the firm said.

-Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago, Daphne Zhang in Beijing, Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Michael Hogan in Hamburg

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U.S. cattle inventories are tight after ranchers slashed the nation’s herd to its smallest size in decades due to a persistent drought that affected pasture lands.

Livestock traders worried that frigid weather could further limit supplies after a monster winter storm dumped a foot of snow from New Mexico to New England.

Cattle tend to put on weight more slowly in cold weather because they expend more energy on staying warm, and some calves could die from the cold, analysts said.

There were 11.5 million head of cattle on feed in feedlots as of January 1, down 3.2 per cent from a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said after the markets closed on Friday. That matched analysts’ expectations.

On January 30, the agency is slated to issue a biannual update on U.S. cattle inventories.

“Packers that need to buy a minimum number of cattle to run production have had to raise bids in order to get covered,” Steiner Consulting Group said in a note.

“Packers will find it difficult to reconcile their needs with what is available at feedlots in any given week.”

CME February live cattle futures LCG26 finished 1.125 cents stronger at 236.025 cents per pound. March feeder cattle futures FCH26 rallied 2.425 cents to 362.600 cents per pound.

In the hog market, futures rose as U.S. slaughtering has declined this year, traders said.

Packers slaughtered an estimated 426,000 hogs on Monday, compared to 421,000 hogs a week earlier and 481,345 hogs a year earlier, according to the USDA. So far in 2026, they have processed about 9 million hogs, down 4.6 per cent from last year, agency data show.

Traders said there were concerns that hog diseases were hurting production on farms.

CME April lean hogs LHJ26 ended up 0.550 cent at 96.725 cents per pound and set a contract high of 97.375 cents.

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Wheat and corn futures finished nearly unchanged as traders adjusted positions in agricultural markets ahead of the release of much-anticipated U.S. Department of Agriculture crop data on Monday.

China’s Sinograin bought at least 10 cargoes of U.S. soybeans, or at least 600,000 metric tons, for shipment in April and May on Friday, three traders with knowledge of the deals said.

Traders have closely tracked China’s demand since U.S. officials said last year that the world’s biggest soybean importer agreed to buy 12 million tons of American supplies as part of a late-October trade truce.

On January 13, Sinograin will auction 1.1 million metric tons of imported soybeans as the state stockpiler works to make room for arriving U.S. shipments.

Earlier, the USDA confirmed that exporters had sold 198,000 metric tons of U.S. soybeans to unknown buyers, after it reported sales of 132,000 tons of U.S. soybeans to China on Thursday.

“The trade seems to mark each of the unknown sales as China sales,” StoneX analyst Bevan Everett said in a note.

March soybean futures SH26 closed up 1-1/4 cents at $10.62-1/2 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. For the week, the contract rose 1.6 per cent.

Traders also monitored investor flows linked to annual changes in the composition of commodity indexes and awaited USDA’s crop reports.

“Traders will wait to see what the USDA gives us on Monday to make their next move,” Cory Bratland, a hedging strategist for AgMarket.Net, said in a report.

The USDA’s reports on Monday will include estimates for winter wheat plantings and last year’s corn and soybean harvests, along with data on U.S. grain stocks as of December 1.

The agency was widely expected to trim its estimate of the average corn yield in last year’s U.S. harvest, and peg the winter wheat area for 2026 below last year’s level.

CBOT March wheat WH26 slipped 3/4 cent to $5.17-1/4 per bushel and climbed about 2.1 per cent for the week. CBOT March corn CH26 slipped 1/4 cent to $4.45-3/4 per bushel and gained about 1.9 per cent for the week.

-Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Daphne Zhang and Lewis Jackson in Beijing; and Gus Trompiz in Paris

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