Just wanted to add!  I wonder what happens to our perspective as producers when we only look at the spread between our selling price of animals and the consumer retail price?  Do we forget about the additional costs in between?

If retail prices are not increasing, but operational costs are, where does the difference come from?  Some will say the producer, others will say a portion of packer profits.  It's a combination of the two.  Volume is where we gain efficiencies and margin.  (what are packer profits as a whole, compared to historic packer concentration)

I wonder if the packers have figured this out yet?  Expanding in Canada, why for?, we can't export except in boxes to the US.  Planning for the future, maybe?  As a packer, I would want to be positioned where their is exportable product too, not so much where there is a negative trade balance! Not where there are segmented markets, volume to one market creates efficiencies also, I would think!