Hogs were down slightly at the morning open, and fell sharply through the day as Wednesday’s technical related support disappeared. December gave back all of the early week gains and closed back under $58, while the cash trends remain down. The hog index was off $.96 at $60.92, and projected $.76 lower for Friday for a weekly decline of $5.
The Actual Slaughter Report with data for the week ending September 9th showed that barrow/gilt average carcass weights jumped 3 Lbs over the previous week to 209 Lbs. Weights were the heaviest since mid-May, and also above a year ago for the 5th consecutive week. Cool August temps across the Cornbelt offered ideal hog feeding conditions, and weights should make further strides once new crop grain gets included into feed rations. Quarterly carcass weights are expected to at least match the 2014 record of 213 Lbs. After the close NASS reported August pork production at 2,210 Mil Lbs, 103% of a year ago and a record largest August total. The Cold Storage Report will be released Friday, and should show an increase in stocks from August.
Outside of a surprisingly short summer pig crop in next week’s inventory report, the hog outlook stays bearish. Sell rallies ahead of the report.
