Cash was sharply higher yesterday and called higher again for today. Were hearing that packers are hunting/searching for hogs for next week. Smithfield is expected to begin processing and shipping huge amounts of pork for China next week, according to my sources. This is causing real havoc in the negotiated market. This is also just the beginning. Pork export sales were posted at 21,500 MT with Mexico, Japan and Canada the big buyers. Mexico took almost half. China was not in our market last week but in the shipments they received 4,400 MTpaying the 62% tariff. Total shipments last week were 27,500, a solid number. Yesterdays volume was 57,100 with open interest down less than 1,000 cars. A story has surfaced from Reuters that Shandong province in northern China, which produced 41 million pigs in 2017 (7% of total production), has just reported a 41% drop in breeding herd inventory during the Aug-Feb period. In addition, this province has only reported one case of ASF. This demonstrates the magnitude of the problem in China and it confirms that cases have been severely under reported. Just the losses in this province alone, if accurate, is a bullish story. Look for the rally in lean hog futures to likely resume in force today ahead of the hog & pig report. The trade is expecting a 102% kept for breeding inventory today. I suspect there could be a bullish surprise on this report. Producers lost money for seven consecutive months going into March. Lending capital dried up as well.

Good morning DH, and Thanks for your continued updates. Bought some more Oct & Dec this morning. I may stop as I am getting a slug of hogs going into the report today!

Dewey