Lean hog futures were down 7 cents in April, as the rest of the board was 17 to 75 cents higher on Thursday. USDA’s national base hog price was reported at $90.89 on Thursday afternoon, down 76 cents from the day prior. The CME Lean Hog Index was down another 6 cents on March 24 at $91.65.

Hogs and Pigs data from this afternoon, showed all hog inventory up 0.44% from a year ago at 74.321 million head. Market hogs were up 0.61% at 68.429 million head, with and hogs kept for breeding down 1.47% to 5.892 million head. Sows farrowing in Dec-Feb were down 1.48% compared to intentions of 1.91% last quarter. The Dec-Feb pig crop was up 0.57% to 33.177 million head. 

Export Sales data showed 40,339 MT of pork booked in the week ending on March 19, a 5-week high. Mexico was the top buyer of 14,100 MT, with 9,700 MT sold to China. Shipments were also the highest in 4 weeks at 39,115 MT. Mexico took 16,700 MT of that, with 4,700 MT to South Korea. 

USDA’s pork carcass cutout value from the Thursday PM report was up $1.05 at $95.35 per cwt. The picnic was the only primal reported higher. USDA estimated Thursday’s federally inspected hog slaughter at 492,000 head, taking the week to date total to 1.976 million head. That is 97,000 head above last week and 41,792 head larger than the same week last year.

Apr 26 Hogs  closed at $90.825, down $0.075,

May 26 Hogs  closed at $95.750, up $0.200

Jun 26 Hogs  closed at $104.300, up $0.175,

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