New York | Reuters — The March floods that punished the U.S. Midwest have roiled the ethanol industry, hammering prices and trapping barrels in the country’s interior while the U.S. coasts suffer from shortages of the biofuel. The historic March floods have dealt a series of blows to large swaths of an ethanol industry that […] Read more
Midwest floods hammer U.S. ethanol industry
ADM says U.S. floods to cut into Q1 operating profit
Chicago | Reuters — Flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest will reduce Archer Daniels Midland’s first-quarter operating profit by US$50 million to $60 million, the U.S. grains trader said on Monday. Record floods have devastated a wide swath of the farm belt across Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and several other states. The […] Read more
Floods shut nearly a sixth of U.S. ethanol production
Mead, Neb./New York | Reuters — Massive flooding in the U.S. Midwest has knocked out roughly 13 per cent of the nation’s ethanol production capacity, as plants in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota have been forced to shut down or scale back production following the devastation. Production facilities owned by large companies like Archer Daniels […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Hogs limit up again on China swine fever fears
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures rallied by their daily trading limits for a second straight day on Thursday on expectations that imports by China would surge as the country’s domestic hog herd is ravaged by a deadly hog disease. All hog contracts posted new contract highs and spot futures reached […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat ends higher on weather worries
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures rose nearly two per cent on Wednesday on poor weather in the Midwest soft winter wheat belt and the northern Plains spring wheat region, traders said. Soybean and corn futures closed modestly higher. Chicago Board of Trade May soft red winter wheat settled up 8-1/4 cents at $4.64-3/4 […] Read more
Manitoba farmers unfazed by flood reports
MarketsFarm — As experts forecast a spring flood to hit southern Manitoba, farmers in the Red River Valley won’t be caught off guard. Manitoba’s Emergency Measures Organization held flood preparedness seminars in Morris, Brandon, and Selkirk throughout the week of March 11. Topics covered included the forecast, flood outlook, preparedness and response and disaster financial […] Read more
Florence shuts down U.S. slaughterhouses
Chicago/Los Angeles | Reuters — U.S. food companies kept slaughter plants shut on Monday in southeastern states swamped by Hurricane Florence as flash floods collapsed the walls of at least two hog manure pits, made roads undriveable and delayed rail shipments. Catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Florence, which has dumped up to 36 inches of rain […] Read more
Canadian hog prices to rise by summer
CNS Canada — Cheap prices for feed and a softer Canadian dollar have helped keep Canadian hog prices aloft so far in 2017. “Right now producers are looking at $180 to $184 a pig,” said Andrew Dickson, general manger of Manitoba Pork. “Prices are looking pretty good for June, July, August.” By July, he said, […] Read more
Runoff levels up in Saskatchewan’s forecast
Saskatchewan has raised its expectations for spring runoff across the board, now predicting “near normal” levels for much of the province and “above normal” to “well above normal” levels in its southeast. The province’s Water Security Agency on Thursday released a March spring runoff forecast pointing to two “areas of concern” — the province’s far […] Read more
U.S. grain shippers await El Nino dryness after unseasonable flood
Chicago | Reuters –– The clear Midwestern skies that El Nino cycles typically bring could be a boon to the U.S. heartland this spring, after recent record rain levels soaked the region, swamping farmland and disrupting grain export shipments on swollen rivers. Farm fields across the Midwest are saturated, according to the U.S. Department of […] Read more
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