(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Klassen: Feeder cattle demand softens

Compared to last week, western Canadian yearling prices were $2-$4 lower on average while calves were down $3-$5 depending on the region. Weakness in the fed cattle market continues to spill over into the feeder complex, as margins drift further into red ink. Alberta packers were buying fed cattle in the range of $245-$246 delivered […] Read more


CME August 2019 live cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: Futures end week on sour note

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle and hog futures fell on Friday, pressured by fears that Mexico, a key importer of both U.S. beef and pork, will retaliate against President Donald Trump’s plans to roll out tariffs on imports from Mexico next week. The trade worries come as U.S. supplies of both hogs […] Read more

Barley south of Ethelton, Sask. on Aug. 3, 2017. (Dave Bedard photo)

Feed weekly outlook: Barley bids rise on weather woes, tight old-crop supplies

MarketsFarm — Tight old-crop supplies and mounting weather concerns over new-crop production are keeping feed grain prices well supported in Western Canada as end-users work to ration supplies. “We’ve seen a very real weather market emerge in the last few weeks,” said Brandon Motz of CorNine Commodities at Lacombe, Alta., pointing to wet conditions hampering […] Read more




Pasture is rotationally grazed by the Sickle family’s cows and calves.

TESA winner matches cover crops with cow herd

Steve Sickle rotationally grazes his cows and calves on pasture, but uses cover crops at the end of the season

Steve and Amanda Sickle of Brant County ended up in the beef cow business when they realized a rolling part of a farm they’d turned from pasture to crops was much better suited to pasture. The family had sold their beef cows when Steve’s dad broke his hip. “We brought them back when we realized […] Read more


There’s a glut of Holstein heifers on the market, so some farmers are turning to cross-breeding to beef.

Breeding strategy bringing dairy-beef crosses to meat market

Advent of sexed semen means more dairy cattle being bred to beef

The father-and-son duo of George and Heath Taylor believe they have an ideal strategy for dairy farmers taking up the use of sexed semen for breeding: Wagyu beef. “They’ve got two-thirds of their herd that they’re not breeding for replacements,” George said recently at the family’s Thorndale beef operation, which shares space with the somewhat […] Read more

U.S. livestock: Hogs dip from two-week high, await trade news

U.S. livestock: Hogs dip from two-week high, await trade news

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. lean hog futures retreated on Wednesday after four straight sessions of gains in a technical and profit-taking setback from two-week highs as investors awaited new developments in U.S.-China trade negotiations. Cattle futures also fell broadly, although worries about a late-winter snowstorm forecast for the beef cattle-producing U.S. Plains underpinned the […] Read more