Pork Wrap January 26
Download PDF After a very dismal December and early January, optimism has returned to the hog and pork complex. Interestingly, this new optimism wasn’t generated by a soaring cutout because the cutout only added its usual $1 this week. Nope, the excitement was generated by the negotiated hog market where prices in the NDD market …
Beef Wrap January 26
Download PDF Small purchases in the cash cattle market over the past few weeks finally caught up with packers and they found themselves having to pay up in order to secure enough live inventory to operate next week. It looks like the average live price will be close to $175.40, which would be up about …
Pork Wrap January 19
Download PDF This week, the pork cutout posted its largest weekly gain since Labor Day, up $2.93/cwt. on a weekly average basis to $88.02. That rally was led by the bellies and it happened in a week where production returned to near-normal. As a result, it easy to conclude that the strength in bellies recently …
Beef Wrap January 19
Download PDF Following the previous week’s weather events, things slowly returned to normal in the cattle and beef complex this week. The cutouts continued higher as buyers chased product in an environment of tighter availability brought on by the previous week’s small kill. On a weekly average basis, the Choice cutout gained $11.89 while the …
Beef Wrap January 12
Download PDF Weather was arguably the biggest factor to affect the cattle and beef complex this week. Snowstorms rolled across the Plains, hindering movement of cattle to slaughter and forcing packers to cancel shifts at several plants. That bout of snow will be followed this weekend by plunging temperatures as a polar vortex descends into …
Pork Wrap January 12
Download PDF Last week, I noted that belly prices had firmed, but I wanted to see how they held up under a full production week. Unfortunately, that hasn’t yet been tested because this week was another short kill week due to weather issues. Snow across the Midwest and an impending polar vortex had packers cutting …
Pork Wrap January 5
Download PDF Lean hog futures went on a rollercoaster ride this week, as the nearby Feb contract inexplicably sold off hard on Tuesday, spent Wednesday ruminating on that move, then shot limit up on Thursday, followed by additional gains on Friday. After all was said and done, Feb added a little over $2 on the …
Beef Wrap January 5
Download PDF Cash cattle traded in North this week in the $174-175 range and while trade was a little slower to get started in the South, it looks like some trade late on Friday happened at a steady $173. Thus, the weekly average should be around $174.30, up close to $2 from the week before. …
Pork Wrap December 22
Download PDF Prices in the hog and pork complex continued their orderly march lower this week, as the cutout averaged $82.30, down $2.09/cwt. from last week. Negotiated hogs fared a little better and the NDD negotiated base price was down $1.28 to average $47.78. With the cutout coming down faster than cash hogs, packer margins …