September 7

9/7 – It’s been a wild ride for hog prices this year. Covid started to impact processing plants in March. Shut-downs led to animal inventory back-ups. CME futures prices that averaged $62.90/cwt in Q1, plunged to lows of $37.33 by mid-April. Producers tried putting hogs on a diet to slow weight gains - to no avail. March through Aug hog futures averaged $53.59, down 30.9% from a year earlier. But the backlog in hogs is over, packers are close to current, futures have recovered to $59.83/cwt (9/4), and forward contracts are averaging $58.74 for Q4. For the year, hog futures look to average $56.69, down 19.2% from $70.14 in 2019. However, 2021 forward contracts are averaging $70.03, similar to 2019 levels. Apr-Aug ham prices (20-23#) averaged $.42/lb, down 44% from $.75 a year ago. Q4 ham prices look to average $.65 (with highs in the mid-$.70s) vs $.80 in Q4 2019.