Jim Long Pork Commentary: US Pork Cut-outs push past 80₵
Holidays are over, packers got working to get hogs killed. Last week, 2,849,000. We aren’t sure but we believe the largest weekly kill in a long time. Despite this big slaughter week U.S. pork cut-outs were 81₵ lb. friday close, up from the low 70’s a couple weeks ago. For hog prices to push higher we need cut-outs to continue to move up. Current packer gross margins are at levels that encourage continual aggressive hog slaughter.