Ag in the News

04/22/2008

National

Canadian beef plant cuts slaughter, lays off workers
Troubled Canadian beef processor Atlantic Beef Products has cut back its weekly slaughter rate and laid off about one-third of its staff in an attempt to control costs, according to Canada's CBC News. MORE!

AMI shuffles execs
The American Meat Institute has hired Scott Goltry as vice president of food safety and inspection services and has shifted the roles of some other executives, the organization said Monday. MORE!

HIKE scenario to improve humane handling and slaughter now online
A new Humane Interactive Knowledge Exchange scenario designed to improve in-plant humane handling and slaughter procedures is now available online from the Food Safety and Inspection Service's Technical Services Center. MORE!

Nolan Ryan's named official beef of the Texas Rangers
Nolan Ryan's announced that its All-Natural Guaranteed Tender Beef has been named the official beef of the Texas Rangers baseball team. MORE!

USPOULTRY announces dates for financial management seminar
The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association's Poultry & Egg Institute has scheduled the 2008 Financial Management Seminar, which aims to help processors stay abreast of best practices to cope with the continually changing financial-management environment. MORE!

Wrap Up

Beans lead overnight gains. Corn futures were 3 to 4 cents higher and soybeans were 9 to 14 cents higher in overnight trade. Chicago wheat futures were fractionally to 2 cents lower.

CFTC session this morning. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today holds a public meeting on the current conditions in the grain markets. They've put together a series of panels and will hear from a host of those involved in the futures markets and will look at whether the markets are still functioning as they should. You can watch the session via this link. It will be live once the hearing begins.

China wheat prospects. Two key wheat-producing provinces in China -- Henan and Shandong -- have received timely rains and that has raised prospects for their wheat crop, according to reports by the Xinhua news agency. Rains which fell April 19-21 helped ease drought conditions, according to reports.

More Thai corn? Thailand's ag ministry is encouraging farmers to expand their corn plantings for the coming growing season, urging them to do so in an effort to temper corn imports and to profit from current corn prices. It's also seen as an effort to help stabilize prices for their livestock sector.