Tyson closes pork plant in Iowa

Tyson has closed its pork plant at Waterloo, Iowa, where about 200 of the 2,800 employees tested positive for COVID-19.

It is the 10^th-largest pork plant in the United States.

Together with other plant closures by Smithfield and JBS, about 12 per cent of the U.S. pork slaughter capacity has been shut down by the pandemic.

Tyson’s plant at Columbus Junction, Iowa, has re-opened. It accounts for about 2.1 per cent of U.S. production.

                           

Bunge is selling 35 U.S. grain elevators

Bunge is selling 35 of its inland grain elevators in the United States to a Japanese company.

Zen-Noh Grain has agreed to “certain supply agreements” with Bunge, said a news release announcing the deal. No financial terms have been disclosed.

Bunge said the deal will Bunge selling 35 U.S. grain elevators

result in a “larger and stronger origination and distribution network.”

African swine fever spreading again in China

African Swine Fever is spreading again in China after a significant decline at the end of last year.

Then the incidence was down to a couple of cases per month. Now its more than a dozen in the last two months, reports Reuters news agency.

This week ASF was discovered in pigs in a truck during inspection in Nanjiang county near Bazhong city. The truck was carrying more than 100 pigs and two had died, Reuters reports.

African Swine Fever outbreaks started in August, 2018, and spread rapidly resulting in the loss of about half of China’s pigs. It was the world’s largest pork producer.

There are forecasts indicating that pork prices in China are headed for a peak this fall.

Canada recently regained permission to resume pork exports to China.

Raw milk infected people with cryptosporidium

A new research report has described cases of cryptosporidium that came from raw milk in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The parasite was previously believed to only infect people who drank contaminated water.

“However, in most recent reports molecular tests on stool specimens along with epidemiological data supported that the infection was acquired through the consumption of unpasteurized milk,” said the research paper.

“As the incubation period for cryptosporidium is relatively long -days to weeks - compared with many other foodborne pathogens - hours to days -, these reports often lack microbiological confirmation because, by the time the outbreak was identified, the possibly contaminated milk was not available anymore,” the authors wrote.

A close friend got cryptosporidium from Kitchener's drinking water - likely contaminated by cattle manure - and the effects on her digestive system lasted years. Not nice!

In another research paper, the authors describe how tuberculosis spread to consumers of raw milk in New York State in 2018 and in Texas in 2017.

Brooks, Alta., beef plant scales down

The former XL beef-packing plant at Brooks, Alta., is scaling back slaughter and processing after 67 workers tested positive for COVID-19.

It’s another blow to Alberta’s beef farmers who lost the Cargill plant at High River early this week due to COVID-19.

It’s not clear when Cargill will re-open. The company is re-opening a plant in Pennsylvania that closed about two weeks ago because of COVID-19.

JBS USA now owns the former XL plant. It shut down the much larger plant at Greeley, Colo., recently because of hundreds of cases of COVID-19 among its workforce of several thousand.

The combination of COVID-19 issues at Alberta’s two beef plants has reduced national cattle slaughter capacity by more than 40 per cent.

Pesticide regs relaxed

The University of Guelph, in promoting its pesticide course for corn and soybean growers, says “regulatory changes proposed last year to reduce complexity and regulatory burden have been implemented.”

Farmers are still required to be certified by successfully completing the IPM (Integrated Pest Management) course for corn and soybeans, but now, this certification only needs to be completed once. 

“If you have previously been certified your certification no longer expires every five years and will continue to be valid,” the university said. 

The Pest Assessment Report (PAR) or a new Pest Risk Assessment Report (PRAR), only needs to be completed once per farm property; it does not need to be repeated yearly. 

Those with a pest assessment report that was prepared and signed under O. Reg. 63/09 prior to April 10, 2020, may continue to use it to purchase and use Class 12 pesticides. 

Treated Seed Vendor no longer is required to obtain copies of the PAR/PRARs, Written Declarations and certificate numbers from IPM certified farmers nor to complete sales records and amounts for each Class 12 pesticide sold. Vendors only need to request to view these documents to complete their sales records. 

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks will no longer post a list of Class 12 pesticides. 

The IPM Course for Corn and Soybeans has been offered since 2015 and about 12,000 people have been certified through the program. 

Any person who has not previously completed the course and requires Class 12 pesticides may complete the requirements by signing up for an online course. 

To sign up for an IPM Course for Corn and Soybeans, people can go online at www.IPMcertified.ca or call 1-866-225-9020.

                           

Corn side-swiped by oil price collapse

Corn has been side-swiped by a drastic decline in oil prices to the point that some are paying others to take oil off their hands because they have no place to store it.

North American oil prices sank to below $37 negative per barrel as those holding contracts had no place to put the oil.

That has also forced some ethanol plants to stop production.

And declining livestock demand for corn-based feeds is also pushing corn prices down.

According to a study by Dr. Gary Schnitkey of the University of Illinois, corn growers in the United States are facing declines of $50 per acre on the upcoming crop.

Nation-wide corn prices have declined by 16 per cent from March 1 to mid-April, and by 20 per cent in some areas, reports the National Corn Growers Association.

Scnitkey said the impacts of reduced livestock demand are just beginning to come to bear in the market, as livestock processing plants are beginning to be disrupted.

On Monday, several more U.S. plants shut down in the United States and Cargill closed Canada’s largest beef-packing plant at High River, Alberta.

The existing market-support subsidy of $17 per base acre for corn will fall short of covering 2019 revenue losses, underscoring the need for the assistance provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), the corn producer association said.