Weekly Purcell Agricultural Commodity Market Report Wayne D. Purcell Agricultural and Applied Economics Virginia Tech

The lean hogs futures are advancing again with strong Tuesday closes, but the upside will be constrained by emerging seasonal patterns that show much higher daily slaughter levels as we move toward October.

The August lean hog futures will run into selling near the contract high of $78.25 and that might be the time to look at October and December futures and consider placing or replacing short hedges.

On the December, it is clear we have an uptrend line with the May 28 low at $54.97 connected to lows across the past week. One approach is to wait until we see a close below that trend line and then hedge the hogs for September through December in the October and December lean hog futures.