Although the icy grip of winter has eased a shade today, there are forecasts of more freezing weather next week and this will continue to affect pig growth rates.

Despite the upcoming Christmas/New Year holiday there could almost be a shortage of pigs on the horizon, which is not what generally happens at this time of year.

As a result although some spot abattoirs were looking to buy at circa 134p there were reports later in the day of offers of 2–4p above this, but generally on a tighter spec.

Producers selling spot cutters should be able to command prices of 145p and more in places, especially if some of the smaller fresh meat wholesalers do some last minute Christmas shopping.

Unfortunately the euro seems to be travelling in the wrong direction and has dropped from 85.16p last week to close at 83.6p this week.

Because of this drop in the value of the euro cull sow quotes drifted a penny easier and it was difficult to get more than 95p for large loads delivered in, with smaller lots or ex-farm prices not much more than 90p and this is certainly hitting the pockets of those producers who have decided to cull larger numbers of unproductive sows in the face of soa