Lean hog futures closed with 10 to 97 cent losses prior to the quarterly NASS report on Thursday.  The national average base hog price was reported at $78.18 on Thursday afternoon, up $1.14 from the previous day. The CME Lean Hog Index was $84. on September 24, down another 16 cents from the day prior. 

The quarterly Hogs & Pigs report showed all hog inventory on September 1 at 76.48 million head, up 0.46% from last year. Market hogs were up 0.69% to 70.437 million head, with breeding hogs down 2.18% at 6.044 million head. The June-August pig crop was down 0.75% from last year at 35.03 million head.

The monthly Cold Storage report from NASS showed August 31 pork stocks at 453.64 million lbs. That was a 13-year low for the months and slightly above the end of July.

The weekly Export Sales were tallied at 28,026 MT in the week that ended on 9/19, a 3-week low. A bulk of the sales were to Mexico, with 13,000 MT in sales, with 3,300 MT sold to Canada. Shipments were back down at 27,857 MT in that week. Mexico was the destination of 11,800 MT, with 3,600 MT shipped to Japan. 

USDA’s FOB plant pork cutout value back up 54 cents in the Thursday PM report at $94.64 per cwt. The picnic and butt were the only primals reported lower, with the other 4 up by a range of 68 cents to $2.77. USDA estimated FI hog slaughter at 486,000 head for Thursday, taking the week to 1.938 million head. That is up 47,000 head from the previous week and 3,586 head above the same week last year.

Oct 24 Hogs  closed at $82.025, down $0.450,

Dec 24 Hogs  closed at $73.925, down $0.975

Feb 25 Hogs  closed at $77.825, down $0.800,