Hog industry growth slows

CANADA - Hog inventories remained lower during the second quarter of 2006, consistent with soft prices. Farmers reported 14.5 million hogs as of July 1, 2006, reports Statistics Canada.

This was 3.1% below the same date last year, and, on a quarterly basis, down marginally from the first quarter of 2006.

Hog prices weakened in the fall of 2005, and have remained relatively low. Prices in the first six months of 2006 were about 19% below the comparable period in 2005.

Inventories in Eastern Canada fell 5.1%, substantially more than the rate of decline of 0.4% in the West. Hog production in Quebec and Ontario has been more adversely affected by disease than in normal years. Producers have been contending with a new strain of porcine circovirus along with other diseases, sometimes made worse by this virulent disease.

Exports of Canadian hogs, principally to the United States to be fed, were up 9.6% in the first half of 2006 from the same period the previous year. They were at historically strong levels. At the same time, domestic slaughter declined by 2.6%.

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