Thursday morning's pork cutout value was $68.85/cwt FOB the plants. That is down 81 cents from a week ago. Loin, ham and belly prices were each lower this week. This morning's national negotiated hog price was only 69.4% of the cutout value.
The average live slaughter weight of barrows and gilts in Iowa-Minnesota last week was 283.1 pounds, down 0.6 pound from a week earlier and down 3.8 pounds from a year ago. The Iowa-Minnesota weight series has been below the year-earlier level for 39 of the last 40 weeks. For the year, Iowa-Minnesota hogs averaged 282.0 pounds, 2.3 pounds less than last year, but still the second highest annual average.
This year's hog slaughter totaled 115.4 million head, the second highest ever after 2008. Thus year's negotiated base price for plant delivered hogs was $66/cwt, down $35 from last year's record and the lowest annual average hog price since 2009.
It appears likely that 2016 hog slaughter will be slightly higher than this year and hog prices slightly lower. USDA is forecasting 2.7% more U.S. meat production next year with pork production up 1.6%, beef production up 4.3%, chicken production up 1.8% and turkey production up 7.5% compared to this year.
The February hog futures contract ended the week at $59.80/cwt, up $1.50 from the week before. April hogs gained 88 cents this week to close at $65.95/cwt. The June lean hog futures contract ended the week at $78.00/cwt, up 40 cents from the preceding Friday.
The March corn futures contract lost 6 cents this week to close today at $3.5875 per bushel.
Source: AGEBB