Lean Hog Futures experienced gains of 15 to 40 cents for front-month contracts on Wednesday. The USDA reported a national base hog price of $91.21, with the CME Lean Hog Index rising 18 cents to $88.35 on February 20.
At the end of January, pork stocks totaled 410.4 million pounds, marking a 6.05% increase from the previous month and a 0.77% rise compared to January of last year, according to the NASS Cold Storage report. The USDA’s pork carcass cutout value rose by 67 cents to $97.62 per cwt, while federally inspected hog slaughter was estimated at 492,000 head for Wednesday, bringing the week’s total to 1.458 million head—31,000 head more than last week but 75 head below the same week last year.
April 26 hogs closed at $96.200, up $0.400; May 26 hogs closed at $100.700, up $0.200; and June 26 hogs closed at $110.175, up $0.150.
