100/cwt. fat hogs

[bruce MN]

Listening to "the markets" on the radio and thinking about how if someone had said say 15 or 20 years ago that hogs were going to be a buck a pound and that there was going to be this convenient, free place on line for hog farmers to get together and discuss their good fortune.

[perspec]

Numbers keep shrinking on independent hog producers.  Going the way of the chicken? market(who is making money there?).  Website like this gives us a tool to share and compete.  Otherwise, media and the big boys with the deep pockets will decide our fate.  $100 hogs are good.  Big money says 10-20% drop in hog numbers.  We will see.  Im hedging.

[Kay/NC]

Twenty years ago, live hogs were eight cents a pound, and you couldn't giive away a cull. The pendulum swings...PEDV shoved it far past its normal arc thia year.

[wt51015]

Yep, sows at 80 cents aren't too bad either, especially given they weighed 510 pounds at the time. Eight cents didn't happen 20 years ago, that was in the twenties and bad enough. 1998 was the year for the 8 cent hogs and 3 cent sows. Is inflation at play?

[Kay/NC]

Sorry, that was fifteen years ago...time sort of loses its meaning.

[perspec]

Media hype has had a history of killing the livestock markets.  Remember mad cow, running out of shackle space(1998), end of the calendar(2000), and swine flu?  All facts but the media sensationalized it.  Markets tanked.  It is about time that media hype is positive to the market but they lag fact.  PEDV has been around for a year.  Market numbers down about 3% and weights up about 3%.  Is that big decline in hog slaughter numbers still coming?