The sale includes two slaughter plants, (Ottumwa, Iowa and Beardstown, Illinois), five feed mills (two in Missouri plus one each in Iowa, Arkansas and Texas) and four hog farms (two in Arkansas plus one in Texas and one in Oklahoma.)

JBS USA Pork already has three hog slaughter plant - Marshalltown, Iowa; Worthington, MN and Louisville, KY. The sale is contingent on regulatory approval.

USDA's weekly Crop Progress report says 68 per cent and 63 per cent respectively of corn and soybean acres were in good or excellent condition on June 28. Both numbers are lower than on the same date last year.

USDA's June 30 Acreage report estimated 2015 corn acres planted at 88.897 million, down 1.7 million acres from last year. Soybean acres planted total 84.449 million, up 1.388 million from 2014.

Thursday's negotiated carcass price for plant delivered hogs averaged $73.21/cwt which is 21 cents lower than a week earlier.

The national average negotiated barrow and gilt purchase price on the morning report today was $72.23/cwt, down 23 cents from last Friday. The western corn belt and Iowa-Minnesota both averaged $73.82/cwt. for negotiated purchases this morning. There was no eastern corn belt negotiated price quote this morning.

Peoria had a top live price today of $48/cwt, $1 lower than last Friday. The top price today for interior Missouri live hogs was $52.75/cwt, unchanged from the previous Friday.

This morning's pork cutout value was $80.48/cwt FOB the plants. That is down $1.82 from the week before. Loin and ham prices were lower this week and bellies higher.

This morning's national negotiated hog price equaled 89.7 per cent of the cutout value.

Through Thursday hog slaughter totaled 1.696 million head, up 1.3 per cent from the same four days last week and up 4.0 per cent from the same days last year.

The average live slaughter weight of barrows and gilts in Iowa-Minnesota last week was 278.6 pounds, down 0.8 pound from a week earlier and down 6.4 pounds from a year ago. This was the fourteenth consecutive week with weights lighter than last year.

The July lean hog futures contract closed today at $78.77/cwt, up $3.32 for the week. August hog futures ended the week at $76.37/cwt, up $3.55 from the week before. October hogs gained $2.95 this week to close at $66.27/cwt. The December contract settled at $63.80/cwt.

Corn futures were strongly higher this week with nearby contracts up over 30 cents from last Friday. The July contract settled at $4.20/bushel on Thursday and December closed at $4.37/bushel.