March 18, 2013
Brad Marceniuk, a Livestock economist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture says, feed prices have increased since the summer of 2012 and prices will not decline much if any until the new crop is harvested.
North American hog prices have been declining the last few weeks. Hog prices for slaughter weight hogs are down about CA20 (US$19.55) per hog since early February with current western Canadian hog prices around CAD140 (US$137) per hundredweight.
The lower prices combined with high feed costs have resulted in significant financial losses for hog producers in the short term. Several factors have contributed to these lower hog prices.
Russia has stopped importing US pork while China is requiring third party verification that US pork is ractopamine-free. Canadian pork exported to Russia also needs ractopamine-free verification. The new trading requirements really are definitely hurting North American pork exports.
Weekly hog slaughter numbers in the US have not declined so far in 2013 while pork production is only down about less than 1% compared to the same period in 2012 and combined with all of that we have seen rising pork in cold storage both in Canada and in the US.
Marceniuk notes the volume of red meat and poultry in cold storage has increased in the last few months particularly pork and the USDA revised its red meat and poultry production estimates upward for 2013 with broiler and turkey production estimates noticeably higher.
