On Thursday, lean hog futures rose by 30 to 60 cents in the front months. The USDA’s national base hog price was unavailable due to light trading volume, while the CME Lean Hog Index decreased by 23 cents to $106.63 on August 26.
In export sales for the week ending August 21, pork sales reached a 9-week high of 42,389 MT, although export shipments fell to a 16-week low of 25,599 MT. The USDA reported a pork cutout price increase of 36 cents, reaching $112.02 per cwt. Additionally, USDA estimated Wednesday’s hog slaughter at 481,000 head, totaling 1.416 million for the week, which is down 22,000 head from the previous week and 10,211 head from the same week last year.
Current prices for October 25 hogs are $94.200 (up $0.300), December 25 hogs are at $86.875 (up $0.375), and February 26 hogs are at $89.200 (up $0.575).
