Download PDF The hog and pork complex is starting to behave as if it is approaching a top after rising persistently since April. It looks like it is going to be one of those tops that is carved out gradually, rather than abruptly. This week the cutout only advanced $0.57/cwt on a weekly average basis …
Download PDF The decline in the beef market slowed this week, with the Choice cutout only averaging $0.75/cwt lower and the Select cutout gaining $2.38/cwt. If we look at the blended cutout, it was only down $0.14/cwt to average $298.36/cwt. Of course, the question on everyone’s mind is whether or not this is as low …
Download PDF Cash hog prices worked higher again this week, with the WCB negotiated market averaging $104.13, a $3.50/cwt increase from last week. Packers can afford to pay more for hogs because they are getting more for their pork. This week, the cutout averaged $113.67, up $2.26 from last week’s average. The cutout has been …
Download PDF Cash cattle prices continued to advance this week, with trade in the north occurring at mostly $188 live and $295 dressed, up $2 live and up $5 dressed from the week before. In the South, trade waited until late in the week and most transactions were near $180/cwt., unchanged to $1 higher than …
Download PDF Prices in the hog and pork complex continued on their upward trajectory this week, with the cutout adding almost $3/cwt through Thursday on a weekly average basis, and the WCB negotiated market gaining a little over $2/cwt. This week we saw several instances of triple digit cash hog prices, with the peak reported …
Download PDF It was more of the same in the cattle and beef complex this week, with the cutouts moving lower at a rapid pace, but the cash cattle market stubbornly refusing to give much ground. Through Thursday, the Choice cutout was down $11.02/cwt and the Select was $9.69/cwt lower. The tug-o-war between packers and …
Download PDF Price levels continued to march higher in the hog and pork complex this week. The cutout added $6.58/cwt. on a weekly average basis and as of Friday afternoon was just a whisker away from $108. This is really starting to look like the kind of summer market that we have all grown accustomed …
Download PDF The beef market continued lower this week, with the Choice cutout dropping $7.22/cwt. on a weekly average basis and the Select cutout losing $6.47/cwt. All of the primals were down to some degree, but the middle meats, and particularly the ribs, were the biggest losers. As they watched the beef market unravel, packers …
Download PDF The pork cutout breached the $100 mark this week, the first time that has happened since last October. All of the primals contributed in that effort, but it was the bellies, loins and butts that did the heavy lifting. The cutout averaged $100.83 on the week, up $4.70/cwt from last week’s average. The …
Download PDF This week started similar to last week, with cattle feeders in the South quick to take lower money ($178/cwt.) on Tuesday. When that happens, packers become fairly confident they are going to get the full showlist bought at lower money, but it didn’t play out that way this week. Packers found it difficult …