Weather Disruptions Prop Up Prices, But Demand Concerns Persist

Mar 06, 2023

Hog slaughter was lower last week as snowstorms disrupted the transportation of hogs to processing facilities. U.S. hog producers are still incentivized to pull hogs forward as current prices are below the cost of production.

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Highlights

Hog slaughter was lower last week as snowstorms disrupted the transportation of hogs to processing facilities. U.S. hog producers are still incentivized to pull hogs forward as current prices are below the cost of production.
Pork belly inventory at the end of January was a little over 70 million pounds, 57% higher than a year ago. Ample freezer inventories should keep belly prices in check through March. Higher prices are expected in Q2.
Pork exports have been trending higher in recent weeks as world buyers take advantage of the attractive prices in the U.S. market. U.S. hog prices currently are trading at a discount to both the EU and Brazil (see page 30 of this report).
Two consecutive weeks of big sales to Mexico have helped bolster prices for bone-in hams. Boneless ham prices, however, are running below year-ago levels as higher prices at retail have curtailed some of the domestic demand.

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Video: There’s a Whole Barn Buried Under This Field Now

There's old hog barns under that field now. The old hog barn site on the farm has been sitting there for decades, and this is the week it finally came out: concrete pad, burn pile, charred lumber, all of it loaded into a CAT 725C rock truck and buried in a pit we dug back in the timber.

Tork's been waiting his whole life to drive one of these, so he gets the keys to a 50,000 pound rock truck and I ride shotgun. The excavator loads, the dozer clears the timber, the drone shows the whole site from above, and by sundown there's nothing left of the old place but a smooth patch of dirt. It's a weird feeling erasing something that was here before either of us, but the farm has to keep moving.