Wholesale Pork Prices Off 6.7% From 23-Month High

KANSAS CITY - The U.S. Department of Agriculture's pork carcass composite value, commonly known as the pork cutout or wholesale, Friday was up $0.66 per hundredweight from Thursday but off $5.49, or 6.7%, from the 23-month high hit on June 23. USDA reported the cutout value at $76.99 Friday afternoon.

Despite the recent slide, the cutout finished the week slightly above its average for the month of June, which was $76.94. For the first half of 2006, the daily figure averaged $64.93. A decline in slaughter-ready hog supplies in June plus stout demand for certain pork cuts along with other meats heading into the Independence Day holiday period helped push wholesale pork prices up to $82.48 on June 23.

That was the highest the cutout had been since July 13, 2004. In the cattle/beef sector, cow slaughter for the year through the week ended June 17 was 3.9% above a year ago, said Ron Plain and Glenn Grimes, agricultural economists at the University of Missouri, in their weekly cattle outlook. Dairy cow slaughter for the same period was off 1%, while beef cow slaughter was up nearly 10%, they said.

In the latest four-week period ending June 17, total cow slaughter was up 11.6%, dairy cow slaughter was up 7.5% and beef cow slaughter was up 14.7%, the University of Missouri economists said.

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Source: CattleNetwork.com

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