MURICO.com Forum

The CME Lean Hog Index component on the kill for -

2/5/19 was down -0.05 to 57.13. It looks like the GGGs will settle discount to the component by -1.21. There are seven days of data to come in before we go to cash settlement. There does not seem to be any trending to the Purchase Index and the model is not giving me any projection for the cash settlement index.

The six-day moving average carcass weight was steady at 215.23#. That is +0.97# yr/yr. Index hogs were a bit lighter at 213.78# which was down a bit. Packer hogs were +3.10# heavier than the non-packer hogs. Packers are continuing to ship a higher percentage of hogs in the kill mix keeping the trend going of more vertical integration by the packers. I am beginning to think this is NOT bullishness on the part of packers, rather a shift of their business plan wherein they own hogs from farrowing to the retailers' cases.

Best wishes,

dhm