News Archive

Manitoba's pork producers are expressing concern over crippling environmental regulations that have forced many small and medium sized operations out of business, writes Bruce Cochrane.

A US-based agricultural economist says the strong value of the Canadian dollar will likely offset a feed cost advantage being created for western Canadian pork producers as a result of the rising value of US corn, writes Bruce Cochrane.

Two major banks' investment arms have signed a $362.4 million deal to buy about a 25 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Foods from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board.
BMO Capital Markets and TD Securities have agreed to pay $10.50 per share for all of Teachers' 34.5 million common shares in...

The president of ATD Waste Systems says adoption of a new solid-liquid manure separation technology will to allow a greater concentration of swine while decreasing the potential environmental consequences, according to Bruce Cochrane.

The Canadian Swine Health Board aims to have a new "all peril" mortality insurance product ready for pork producers by the new year.
The board has confirmed it's working with the pork industry groups in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec to develop a national mortality insurance product.
The package is being modeled after a...

The hog industry had some interesting developments this past week.

Our observations: Lean hog futures for the last half of 2011 at the CME reached new life of contract highs. Last week August 86.55, October closed at 80.05, and December at 77. These are excellent prices for the fall months. It makes...

Up for sale since 2008, Maple Leaf Foods' Burlington, Ont. pork slaughter and packing plant will be picked up by a U.S. private investment firm for about $20 million.
The Toronto food firm on Tuesday announced a deal with an unnamed affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, a major U.S. private investment firm...

After a wet growing season across most of the Prairies, one analyst predicts Western Canada will be in for a cold and dry winter.

Canada's third-quarter hog inventories as of Oct. 1 are reported at 11.9 million head, down 0.8 per cent from the same date in 2009, according to Statistics Canada.

CANADA - The author of the Canadian Swine Health Board's Biosecurity Users Guide says the new package will provide one stop shopping to help Canadian swine producers improve biosecurity on their farms, Bruce Cochrane.

CANADA - This week's North American Pork Commentary from Jim Long.

CANADA - The Canadian Swine Health Board says a just completed national biosecurity benchmarking survey will assist in developing enhanced biosecurity programming, Bruce Cochrane writes.

This past week lean hog prices took a pounding with Iowa - South Minnesota averaging 64.11 on Friday. With the double whammy of higher feed prices there are few if any producers that can turn a profit at these hog prices.

CANADA - Draxxin® is now registered for control of swine respiratory disease (SRD) in groups of pigs where SRD has been diagnosed.

CANADA - The chair of the Canadian Swine Health Board says disease prevention offers the Canadian swine industry an opportunity to create a competitive advantage in the global market, Bruce Cochrane writes.

Billed as the first federally-approved treatment against coccidiosis in Canada's hog herds, Baycox 5% is "now available" north of the border, its manufacturer confirmed Monday.

(Resource News International) -- Quebec meat packer Olymel's hog processing plant at Red Deer, Alta. is again open after shutting down operations Monday and Tuesday due to an animal disease scare.

(Resource News International) -- Olymel's hog processing plant at Red Deer, Alta. has been shut down due to the appearance of suspicious animals which arrived there from a farm in Saskatchewan, according to an official with the Canadian Pork Council.

The HFTP administrator has written to those producers next in line to take part in the program, informing them that they now have successful bids and they are now eligible to get HFTP payments.

PORK producers are emerging from a nearly three-year-long tunnel of what was a horrendous market situation -- first being caught hard by extraordinarily high corn and feed costs, second by the worst economic recession since the great one and third by a novel form of human influenza that was misnamed "swine...

Special coverage from the World Pork Expo (WPX) in Des Moines, Iowa, June 9-11.

The 2010 World Pork Expo was perfect. The attitudes of the people involved in the pork industry are incredible, and the outlook is good.

Pork Commentary: USDA Pork Cutouts Break 90 Cents Per Pound
To have high hog prices the packer needs to get paid enough. At the end of last week USDA pork cutouts averaged 90.68 cents per pound. This is up an astonishing 11 cents per pound (79.31) in the past two weeks or...

By Statistics Canada. In the survey on 1 April, producers reported two per cent total pigs on farm than a year previously, and 5.7 per cent fewer sows, continuing the decline in the Canadian pig population. Slaughter numbers have remained steady for the last three quarters.

An expansion plan is in place for the province's only federally-inspected beef and bison processing facility. Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Hoeppner, on behalf of Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, announced a 310 thousand dollar repayable loan for Winkler Meats on Friday.