Although there were no fireworks in the market today these are predicted to occur once normal trading resumes based upon forecasts of United Kingdom pig numbers continuing to tighten following poor conception rates last autumn and the Arctic weather conditions over Christmas and the New Year.

Those sellers on DAPP plus 2p will be paid at 144.3p which is very similar to the Tulip base price, which remains at 144p.

Lighter weights continue to earn modest premiums of 4–8p/kg, but in many cases it is tempting to take everything up to maximum bacon weight on a 14 probe.

No signs yet of any recovery in cull sow values, which remain the odd man out compared with finished pigs and weaners.

Those of you with long memories will recall that this time last year cull sows were trading at 120p/kg, whereas today 100p/kg seemed to be the threshold price although shrewd sellers were generally able to haggle a few coppers more than this. Demand was not helped by some of the major European cull sow processing factories being closed for much of the Easter period.

The value of the euro has remained relatively firm, closing on Friday worth 90.5p, helped to some extent by Call-me-Darling’s negative budget performance and ongoing worries about the near-bankrupt state of the United Kingdom economy.

Weaner sellers continued to smile most of the way to the cash point machine with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 30kg average now standing at 353.51 and signs of further rises in the pipeline.

All in all the pig industry’s Easter egg is well over half full.