The average live price for 51-52% lean slaughter hogs in November was $42.01/cwt, down $10.67 from the month before and down $21.75 from a year ago.
The larger drop in hog prices than retail prices has caused price spreads to widen. The farm to retail price spread was a record $3.188 per pound at retail during November. This was up 13.6 cents from the month before and up 22.3 cents from a year ago.
The farm-wholesale price spread was a record 73 cents per retail pound in November, up 8.5 cents from October and up 13.4 cents from a year ago.
The wholesale-retail price spread was $2.458 per pound in November, up 5.1 cents from October, up 8.9 cents from a year ago, and the fourth highest ever.
The national negotiated barrow and gilt price on the morning report today was $47.81/cwt, down $2.12 from last Friday morning. The western corn belt averaged $48.09/cwt this morning, down $2.13 for the week. Iowa-Minnesota averaged $48.05/cwt. There was no negotiated price quote this morning for the eastern corn belt.
Peoria had a top live price today of $28/cwt, unchanged from last Friday. The top price today for interior Missouri live hogs was $33.75/cwt, down 75 cents from the previous Friday.
This morning's pork cutout value was $71.85/cwt FOB the plants. That is down $3.03 from the week before. Loin prices were higher; but ham and belly prices were lower. This morning's national negotiated hog price was only 66.5% of the cutout value.
The average live slaughter weight of barrows and gilts in Iowa-Minnesota last week was 284.1 pounds, down 0.3 pound from a week earlier and down 1.3 pounds from a year ago.
The February hog futures ended the week at $56.625/cwt, down $3.925 from the week before. April hogs lost $2.65 this week to close at $62.05/cwt. The June lean hog futures contract ended the week at $75.05/cwt.
The March corn futures contracted settled at $3.745 per bushel today. That is down 0.75 cents from last Friday.