4/30/15 surged forth at a much stronger pace being UP +$2.22!! The model projects that the CME Lean Hog Index component on the 4-30-15 kill will be up between +1.20 and +1.50. It appears that the spring price increase is moving into full bloom. I suppose retailers are deciding to load their cases for Mothers' Day and the Memorial Day holiday and this is sending packers scurrying to find the hogs to fill those orders.

Ka! Ching!! Just dumped another K/M spread while I was typing.

Packers did a fairly good job of finding hogs yesterday purchasing 105.5% of the moving average daily purchases. Bringing in all these hogs is keeping producers very current in their shipments. The six-day moving average carcass weight is continuing to slide so some of the kill numbers may be reflecting some liquidation of market hogs by producers. At this point there seems to be enough younger hogs coming along to keep the pipeline filled.

I saw the strong Purchase Index just about the time that the MMMs dipped to 80.80 so I climbed onto a long MMM pig. So far I like that decision.

Best wishes,

dhm