Lean Hogs Futures PricesWednesday, May 23rd, 2012

Lean Hogs are expected to start the day 80 to 120 cents lower. The CME lean hog index for 5/18 was $83.23, up $1.21 from the day before. The pork carcass cutout value was sharply lower Tuesday on 107.75 loads. Pork trading was slow to moderate with mostly light to moderate demand and moderate to heavy packer offerings. Estimated daily slaughter was 417,000 head vs. 411,000 for the same day in 2011. Cash hogs in IA/MN were up $1.15 from the previous day. WCB hogs were $1.10 higher and ECB hogs were $2.04 higher. The Cold Storage report showed pork supplies in April were the largest since August 2009. Some of this is to feed exports. Exports have also been running higher but not as high as a year ago for the month of March (official census number). Ham stocks rose 32.5 million pounds in a month. There is a demand problem there. Chicken stocks were 18.2% below year ago, but are seeing some problems in leg quarters because of trade disputes.