Jim Long Pork Commentary: U.S. hog marketing’s soar

Last week the U.S. marketed 2,589,000 hogs, up from 120,000 a year ago. We expect last week’s number is one of the highest weeks ever.
calendar icon 26 October 2018
clock icon 4 minute read

There were days last week of 477,000 head per day, which is the highest daily kills ever. Lots of hogs and prices came under pressure with 53-54% lean hogs decreasing from 67.94 to 66.00 over 7 days. A year ago, 53-54% lean hogs were 62.50

Packers are doing just fine with Packer gross margins staying strong. U.S. Pork Carcass cut-outs were $78.50 on Friday, with 53-54% lean hogs at $66.00, the $12.50 spread is good for packers.
Its real good news that pork demand is strong with Pork cut-outs at 78¢ lb despite record hog marketing.

If we could only get rid of Mexico and China tariffs on U.S. pork, then we might get a real market boost.

This past week we were in Minnesota and South Dakota. It is really wet, there were few if any combines working. Farmers are anxious and worried about soybeans harvest and possible mold. Corn standing but not getting harvested. It’s mid-October not November, time yet but anxiety level high for much of the mid-west U.S.

While in Minnesota we visited the Prime Pork Plant in Windom. Prime is a newer plant (2 years) owned by Glen Taylor. Glen Taylor is owner of several companies including the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA.

Prime Pork has just launched a new brand called Comfrey Farm Prime Pork. Comfrey is the village in Minnesota close to where Glen Taylor was raised. Comfrey Farm Prime Pork is unique in that it is using the Duroc label of the National Swine Registry.

To use the Duroc label you must use registered Durocs’ that are part of the National Swine Registry. The Brand similar to Certified Angus Beef is testament to the taste and flavor of the registered Duroc. Comfrey Farm Prime Pork are using Genesus Durocs

We have written insistently over the years that to drive real pork demand we need to produce Pork that delivers taste and flavour to consumers. The Taste and flavour come from having marbling, red pork and pH levels that hold juiciness.

For twenty years Genesus has worked diligently to produce pork with the eating attributes that will enhance demand, while delivering production characteristics that deliver a competitive cost of production.

  • Taste and flavour should not be a niche product at a higher cost of production, but one that is a main stream for our industry. Comfrey Prime Pork tells their story well in their website and video www.comfreyfarmpork.com

Genesus appreciates the opportunity to work with Comfrey Farm Prime Pork, a company committed to producing the best eating experience for both their domestic and international customers. A Couple weeks ago inadvertently our Commentary that is done in Chinese was sent to our English email list. We got a lot of replies from English speaking people who said they couldn’t read Chinese.

Every week the Jim Long Pork Commentary is done in English, Chinese, Russian, French, Spanish, German and Thai. I might write it but I don’t translate it. Our Genesus team in our different countries execute the translation weekly.

Currently we send over 15,000 emails a week and are on 11 websites globally in several different languages. We expect it is read by more people globally than any other weekly commentary. No matter what the country we travel we are somewhat awed by how many people choose to read it. To us it tells us that the world wants global pork news. They want to know trends, markets, disease expansion etc. For whatever reason many people are interested in our perspective.

We are humbled and grateful.

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