September 18, 2008
Iowa/Southern Minnesota hog weights bounce on week but well under 2007
The average weight for barrows and gilts in Iowa/southern Minnesota last week jumped 2.5 pounds, more than offsetting a 1.0-pound drop the previous week, but it remains well below the year-ago figure.
The US Department of Agriculture reported the latest average at 261.9 pounds, compared with 259.4 pounds a week earlier and 266.2 pounds a year ago.
Market analysts and livestock dealers said the 2.5-pound increase may have been the result of an unusual 1.0-pound decline the previous week when the seasonal trend is toward heavier weights. Some speculated that the lower average in the week-ended Sept. 5 may have been driven by packers pulling more heavily from their contracted supplies during the Labour Day holiday-shortened week. Also, privately-owned operations may have sold fewer hogs that week as they resisted the lower price quotes.
Glenn Grimes, agricultural economist at the University of Missouri, said other factors also likely affected the swing in weights. Volatility can occur in average weights from week to week due to sampling errors, because the data collected for the weekly weight report are taken on a sample basis. Also, split-sex feeding in which more pens of pigs with the same sex may go to slaughter in a given week can affect the average.
Grimes also said weights are down from a year ago mainly because feed costs are high. Grain prices have come down from the peaks hit earlier in the summer but are still historically high. In addition, there have been reports that feeding more dried distillers' grains, or DDGS, which are a by-product of the ethanol industry, to hogs has reduced daily weight gains.
The rebound in the weekly figure is considered only mildly bearish for the market overall because the year-on-year figure is still down 4.3 pounds.
Grimes said the difference in live weights from a year ago equates to about 3.0 pounds on a carcass basis. Also, on a weekly slaughter of 2.3 million head as occurred last week, the lighter weights reduced total pork production by nearly 7.0 million pounds.
