031146 Weekly Hog Price Summary

Terminal cash hog prices this Friday Top live prices for select markets this Friday morning were: Peoria $32, St. Paul $34.50, Sioux Falls $36 and interior Missouri $31.

Weekly slaughter under Federal Inspection was estimated at 2.141 million head --- up 4.4% from the same week last year.

The average prices for 185 pound carcasses with 0.9-1.1 inch back fat with 6 square inch loin 2 inches deep by area were: Western Cornbelt $47.37, Eastern Cornbelt $45.68, Iowa to Minnesota $47.22 and Nation $46.60.

Note: The good news is that live hog prices in October were nearly 22% above 12 months earlier. For the first 10 months of 2003 live hog prices were up nearly 13% from a year earlier. But it should also be noted that all of the increases in prices for January to October for live hogs came from squeezed marketing margins. The total marketing margin for pork for January to October was down 5.2% from last year, with most of the decline coming from the processor and retailer margins.

Live hog imports continue to run well above last year with the total number imported for January to September up a little over 25%. Feeder pig imports were up over 34% and slaughter hog imports were up nearly 9%. At the rate of import of live hogs through September, we will import over 7 million live hogs from Canada this year.

Source: AgWeb.com - Based on information issued by USDA

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