Ron Plain and Scott Brown
Ag Economics, MU
October 21, 2016
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This week's hog slaughter is the largest ever. Slaughter bounced back from last week's reduced level caused by Hurricane Matthew. This week's hog slaughter totaled 2.514 million head, up 9.1% from last week, up 8.3% from the same week last year, and 15 thousand head above the old record set the week ending on December 19, 2015. Look for the week ahead to also have a big slaughter.
The average retail price of pork during September was $3.789 per pound. That was down from the month before and down from a year ago. The farm-to-retail marketing margin was the largest since January.
The average live price for 51-52% lean hogs was $43.36/cwt during September. That was down $4.76 from the month before and down $8.28 from a year ago.
Friday morning's pork cutout value was $74.02/cwt FOB slaughter plants. That is up 43 cents from the week before. Loin and butt prices were lower; belly and ham prices were higher.
The national negotiated barrow and gilt price averaged $44.58/cwt on the morning report today, down 86 cents from a week earlier. The western corn belt averaged $45.40/cwt this morning, down $1.92 from last Friday. There was no regional price quotes this morning for the eastern corn belt or for Iowa-Minnesota. This morning's national negotiated hog price is only 60.2% of the cutout value.
The top hog price today at Peoria was $25/cwt, unchanged from a week ago. Today's top price for interior Missouri live hogs was $29.25/cwt, down 75 cents from last Friday.
The average slaughter weight of barrows and gilts in Iowa-Minnesota last week was 281.4 pounds. That is up 0.2 pound from the week before, but down 0.8 pound from the same week last year.
Hog futures were a lower this week. The December lean hog futures contract ended the week at $41.85/cwt, down 37.5 cents from the preceding Friday. February hogs settled at $48.725/cwt, down $1.55 from last Friday. The April contract settled at $56.725, down $1.30 for the week. June hogs settled at $69.675 today.
Corn futures were a bit lower this week. The December corn futures contract lost 1.75 cents this week to close at $3.525 per bushel. March corn futures closed 1.5 cents lower than last Friday at $3.6225/bu. May corn futures ended the week at $3.69/bu.
Source: AGEBB