At midday, lean hog futures are mixed, with front-month contracts down 15 cents and others showing slight increases. The USDA reported a national base hog price of $91.27 on Wednesday, alongside a CME Lean Hog Index of $91.71, down 7 cents from the previous day.
Pork stocks reached 403.503 million pounds at the end of February, marking the lowest level for that period since 1997. The USDA also noted a pork carcass cutout value of $97.20 per cwt, with an estimated federally inspected hog slaughter of 495,000 head on Tuesday, bringing the week’s total to 987,000 head—98,000 more than last week, and 27,857 more than the same week last year.
