UPDATED, March 20 — Manitoba’s restrictions on hog barn and manure storage construction are set to be shelved by way of an omnibus “red tape reduction” bill. Provincial Finance Minister Cameron Friesen on Thursday introduced Bill 24 for first reading. Among its 15 proposed amendments to various pieces of legislation, the bill would repeal two […] Read more
Manitoba to axe limits on hog barns
PED pops back up in southern Ontario
Porcine epidemic diarrhea has appeared on two hog operations in southern Ontario, after nearly eight months with no new cases in the province. Ontario Pork reported the province’s 100th and 101st cases of PED on Feb. 22 and March 7, at finisher barns in Middlesex County and in the Haldimand-Norfolk district respectively. Ontario — home […] Read more
JBS to buy U.S. pork processor Plumrose
U.S. ham and bacon processor Plumrose is set to become an arm of major Brazilian meatpacker JBS. JBS, whose holdings include one of Canada’s biggest beef packing plants at Brooks, Alta., announced Monday it has an agreement in place to buy Plumrose from Danish co-operative Danish Crown for US$230 million. The deal would give JBS […] Read more
Oklahoma wildfires kill thousands of pigs
Reuters — Wildfires devastated a Smithfield Foods hog farm in Laverne, Oklahoma, killing at least several thousand pigs, company and local officials said Friday. The exact number of swine killed in the Oklahoma fire, which began on Monday, was not immediately known. Smithfield did not say how many died in the blaze, but said no […] Read more
Cash-rich Maple Leaf sees abundant U.S. opportunities
Reuters — Canadian meat packing company Maple Leaf Foods is hunting for acquisitions in the U.S., after years spent upgrading old factories and shedding business lines, its CEO said on Wednesday. Maple Leaf, which reported on Wednesday its profits doubled in the fourth quarter, sees growth opportunities from meat produced humanely and without antibiotics, and […] Read more
Wild boars roam Czech forests, some of them radioactive
Prague | Reuters –– The Czech Republic has an unusual problem this winter with its wild boar meat, a local delicacy. The boars are radioactive. Actually, it’s not the boars themselves, but what they’re eating. A cold and snowy winter is forcing them to feed on false truffles, an underground mushroom common in the Sumava […] Read more
Maple Leaf Foods allows McCain to boost stake
Reuters — Canadian meat processor Maple Leaf Foods reported a smaller-than-expected profit on Wednesday and also said it would allow its biggest shareholder to take a bigger stake in the company. The company said CEO Michael McCain and an affiliated company, McCain Capital Inc., could now bump up their stake to as much as 45 […] Read more
Pizza chains expand antibiotic-free meat market
Canadian pizza chains Pizza Nova and Pizza Pizza are both staking out further space in the chain dining market for meats from livestock raised without antibiotics. Toronto-based Pizza Pizza on Jan. 23 announced it would source all chicken products on its menu from birds raised without the use of antibiotics, effective immediately. The company’s pledge […] Read more
Hog market improving with solid exports
CNS Canada — Strong U.S. exports and declining cold-storage numbers have helped push hog prices on Canada’s Prairies to better levels than a few months back. According to the latest information compiled by Saskatchewan Agriculture, the U.S. exported 173,770 tonnes of pork in November 2016, up 13.5 per cent from 153,051 in October 2016, and […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Cattle, hog futures mixed on end-of-year positioning
Chicago/Reuters – Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures were narrowly mixed on Friday, paring earlier steep gains on end-of-year positioning, traders said. Stronger bids for cattle in U.S. Plains cash markets underpinned prices. But some investors took profits after most-active February futures hit an eight-month high before turning slightly lower. Despite the recent rally, cattle […] Read more
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