Livestock Farming

Inflation is coming for Thanksgiving dinner.Turkey supplies have become stretched this year after an avian-influenza outbreak devastated flocks in the springtime and threatens to re-emerge in the fall, meat industry executives said. Reduced flocks have lifted turkey prices to record levels, analysts said, and price tags for the holiday staple are likely to remain high through Thanksgiving. The bird-flu outbreak has affected 39 states this year and has led to the death of more than 40 million birds, including roughly 6…

WASHINGTON—From a drab gray office building in the capital, an obscure federal board has spent much of the year telling railroad chief executives how not to run their railroads.The Surface Transportation Board, the economic regulator overseeing the country’s freight railroads, is considering aggressive new rule-making to force railroads to share tracks and improve competition for their customers. It is adjudicating a dispute over track access on the Gulf Coast, with implications for the growth of passenger rail…

Whatever you come in hoping to eat, restaurants want it to be chicken.Big chains are advertising it, cooking up new flavors and pushing poultry hard at the register in these inflationary times. Restaurant owners say they can often make more profit per order on white meat than beef. And consumers are still buying up crispy chicken sandwiches, industry data show.…

The Justice Department is discussing with Cargill Inc. and Continental Grain Co. potential concessions that could clear the way for the companies to acquire poultry processor Sanderson Farms Inc., SAFM -1.44% according to people familiar with the matter.The discussions with the government involve how farmers and plant workers are paid, the people said. Cargill, an agribusiness giant with meat, grain and food ingredients businesses, and…

Two brain-dead individuals received genetically modified pig-heart transplants, part of growing efforts by scientists who want to improve tests on pig organs for pig viruses and gather data that could help launch clinical trials of animal-to-human organ transplants.Scientists at NYU Langone Health, where the research studies took place in June and July, said the pig hearts were flown from a facility hundreds of miles away and then transplanted into two recently deceased individuals, Lawrence Kelly, 72, a former welder…

SPRINGDALE, Ark.— Tyson Foods Inc. TSN -2.28% has fallen behind competitors in the business it has long dominated: chicken.Tyson Chief Executive Donnie King said he is committed to fixing the nation’s largest chicken operation, which produces roughly one-fifth of the U.S. supply. The effort now faces a test, as profits from Tyson’s beef business are projected to decline this year from record levels, while the company has committed millions…

Federal prosecutors failed for a third time to convict five chicken-company officials of allegedly conspiring to fix prices, dealing a blow to the Justice Department’s antitrust division and its efforts to rein in the meat industry.Jurors in a Denver federal court on Thursday evening acquitted all five defendants, who had been accused of illicitly coordinating among themselves what their companies would charge restaurant buyers. It was the third trial attempt by the Justice Department in its high-profile case against…

Smithfield Foods Inc., the largest pork processor in the U.S. by volume, is closing an 1,800-person plant in California and shrinking the size of its hog herd in the region, saying the cost of doing business in the state wasn’t worth it. Smithfield, owned by Hong Kong-based pork conglomerate WH Group Ltd. 288 -2.60% , said Friday that it would close the plant in Vernon, Calif., just outside of Los Angeles, in early 2023, citing higher…

The deal takes place as chicken prices have surged, driven by strong consumer demand and rising grain prices. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images…

McDonald’s Corp. MCD 1.86% shareholders voted down two director nominees backed by activist investor Carl Icahn as part of his effort to change the way the fast food giant’s pork suppliers treat hogs.The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that McDonald’s MCD 1.86% was poised to prevail. Shareholders Thursday re-elected the company’s full 12-member board, McDonald’s…