What’s Inside:
Deep Dive - Hendrix Genetics Takes Full Ownership of Its Danish Swine Joint Venture
Montauk Opens $200 Million North Carolina Plant Turning Hog Waste Into Power
August Cattle Placements Fall 9 Percent to Lowest Since 1996
ForFarmers and Tasomix Agree to Buy Polish Miller STW
USDA Awards $26.5 Million in Value-Added Producer Grants, $11.6 Million to Beef
JBS and Viva Sign 50/50 Leather Agreement Covering 20 Million Beef Hides
Hendrix Genetics said September 17 it now owns Hendrix Genetics Swine outright, ending the Danish minority left in the January 2025 Hypor-Danish Genetics close. The Danish register shows partner vehicle DG HoldCo dropping off August 10, with the Dutch parent in the 90 to just-under-100 percent band and no price disclosed. PIC still publishes the only global share table, and Hendrix named no customer, which leaves this as a control change inside one private program.
Montauk Opens $200 Million North Carolina Plant Turning Hog Waste Into Power
Montauk Renewables opened a roughly $200 million swine-waste plant in Turkey, North Carolina on September 15, serving more than 80 farms and 415,000 hog spaces. The plant converts hog manure into electricity at commercial scale, a different asset class from the dairy digester groundbreakings that usually fill this slot. Dairy RNG operators still dominate farm-gas headlines, so a live hog-waste plant this size forces those developers to price swine manure as a real feedstock, not a slide.
August Cattle Placements Fall 9 Percent to Lowest Since 1996
USDA's September 18 Cattle on Feed report put August placements at 1.62 million head, down 9 percent and the lowest August since 1996. New Mexico reported a screwworm case in a horse on September 16, adding a southern-border animal-health risk to a feeder pipeline that is already shrinking. Packers who budgeted cheap fall placements now face a tighter 2027 fed-cattle book than last year's curve implied, and CME live-cattle specs will reprice that scarcity first.
ForFarmers and Tasomix Agree to Buy Polish Miller STW
ForFarmers and Polish partner Tasomix agreed September 16 to buy STW SA, a Polish mill with about 270,000 tonnes of annual compound-feed capacity, with no purchase price disclosed. Close is targeted for early 2027, still pending Polish competition approval, and the deal excludes on-site logistics plus the seller's family poultry farms. De Heus and Cargill still contest the same Polish compound-feed shelf, so ForFarmers will run the bought tonnes rather than integrate a farm footprint.
USDA Awards $26.5 Million in Value-Added Producer Grants, $11.6 Million to Beef
USDA said September 18 it will put just over $26 million into Value-Added Producer Grants, with about $12 million going to 80 beef projects. The awards are a separate pot from the FSIS Stand-Up inspection program dated September 16, which offers up to $50 million and is not this story. Those grants keep more carcass value on the farm this cycle, which means independents who lose that packer-door margin get a public check this round.
JBS and Viva Sign 50/50 Leather Agreement Covering 20 Million Beef Hides
JBS and Viva Holding signed a 50/50 leather association agreement on September 15 covering more than 20 million beef hides a year, 31 plants, and 11,000 people. The 8-K names no consideration, and slaughter assets in Cactus, Texas, plus Germany, Uruguay, Mexico, and both firms' collagen and gelatin stay out. US and European hide buyers now face a Brazilian-controlled wet-blue pool that will set supply without those carve-outs, a year after the November 2025 preview.