Negative processing margins are causing some packers to bid cautiously and could possibly lead to trimmed slaughter schedules at a few plants this week. After a reduced slaughter on Monday due to the Martin Luther King holiday and downward revisions Tuesday and Wednesday because of a snowstorm in the southeast, packers may try to push a few more hogs through their plants Friday and Saturday, analysts said. The projections are seen mostly from 155,000 up to 170,000 head.

The week's total will still fall short of a year ago by about 2.5 percent and is expected to be around 2.240 million heads. If the predictions for this week's tally are correct, weekly slaughters so far in 2009 are averaging nearly 3.0 percent below a year ago.

Market analysts and livestock dealers said all packers are full for this week and are booking hogs for delivery into the middle of next week. Only a few plants are thought to need any additional loads for early-week delivery.

Record large total frozen pork supplies were reported by the US Department of Agriculture Thursday in its December cold storage data. The total pork figure for end-December was 549.021 million pounds, up 90.4 million pounds from the same period a year ago.

Analysts said the large frozen pork supplies could weigh on wholesale pork prices and ultimately on near-term hog prices. Reduced slaughter-ready hog supplies ahead will help offset the bearishness reflected in the cold storage data, they said.

The terminal markets are called steady with top prices expected to be from US$36 to US$38 on a live basis.

The projected Chicago Mercantile Exchange two-day lean hog index for Wednesday was 58.64 cents per pound, up 0.01 cent from the previous day.