By RON PLAIN
Hog Outlook
Cargill has agreed to sell its pork operations to JBS USA Pork for $1.4 billion. The sale includes two slaughter plants (Ottumwa, Iowa, and Beardstown, Ill.), five feed mills (two in Missouri plus one each in Iowa, Arkansas and Texas) and four hog farms (two in Arkansas plus one in Texas and one in Oklahoma.) JBS USA Pork already has three hog slaughter plants – Marshalltown, Iowa, Worthington, Minn., and Louisville, Ky. The sale is contingent on regulatory approval.
The negotiated carcass price for plant delivered hogs Thursday, July 2, averaged $73.21 per cwt, which is 21 cents lower than a week earlier.
The national average negotiated barrow and gilt purchase price on the morning report July 2 was $72.23 per cwt, down 23 cents from the previous Friday. The Western Corn Belt and Iowa-Minnesota both averaged $73.82 per cwt for negotiated purchases that morning. There was no Eastern Corn Belt negotiated price quote on July 2.
Peoria had a top live price that day of $48 per cwt, $1 lower than the previous Friday. The top price July 2 for interior Missouri live hogs was $52.75 per cwt, unchanged from the previous Friday.
The morning pork cutout value was $80.48 per cwt FOB the plants. That is down $1.82 from the week before. Loin and ham prices were lower last week and bellies higher. The July 2 national negotiated hog price equaled 89.7 percent of the cutout value.
Through Thursday, July 2, hog slaughter totaled 1.696 million head, up 1.3 percent from the same four days last week and up 4.0 percent from the same days last year.
The average live slaughter weight of barrows and gilts in Iowa-Minnesota last week was 278.6 pounds, down 0.8 pound from a week earlier and down 6.4 pounds from a year ago. This was the fourteenth consecutive week with weights lighter than last year.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Ron Plain may write to him in care of this publication.
