Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium gets underway

Pork producers from around the province are gathering in Saskatoon this week for the 46th annual Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium.

The annual event focuses on practical take-home advice, best practices, new research and innovation.

Some of the key presentations include Everything You Need to Know to Improve Your Barn’s Energy Efficiency, The Future of Farming: Advancements Reshaping the Swine Industry and the Keynote address on Wednesday features an economist from Global AgriTrends talking about What's next for the Global Pork Market.

Below you'll find the latest Hog  Marketing Report from Saskatchewan's Ministry of Agriculture.

- North American cash slaughter weight hog markets continued lower in October. 

- U.S. National negotiated producer and packer sold cash slaughter weight hog prices in October averaged US$72.63 per cwt, down 7.0 per cent from the monthly September average of US$78.12 per cwt.

- Weekly Sask Signature#4 base (Index 100) slaughter weight cash hog prices averaged $193.18 per ckg last week; a price decline of $1.53 per ckg from $194.71 per ckg the previous week.

- Iowa cash iso-wean pig prices increased US$1.27 per head last week to average US$24.69 per head; but are still down $31 per pig or 56 per cent since the first week in March 2023.

- Iowa cash feeder hog prices (40lb.) increased US$0.68 per head to average US$36.88 per head last week. Feeder pig prices are still $50 per pig or 57 per cent below cash prices the first week in March 2023.

- U.S. weekly hog slaughter numbers over the last four weeks averaged 2.629 million head, up 2.4 per cent from 2.566 million head over the same period a year ago.

- Pork in U.S. cold storage on September 30, 2023, totaled 462.8 million lb., down 13.8 per cent from a year ago (Sept. 2022), and down 1.4 per cent from 469.2 million lb. on August 31,  2023.