Margin Watch: December

January 3, 2014

Hog margins were flat to higher over the second half of December to finish off the year, with feed prices and hogs mixed across the various marketing periods in 2014. Overall from a bigger picture perspective, hog production margins remain extremely favorable heading into the New...

Margin Watch: January

February 3, 2014

Hog margins improved further through the last half of January due to continued strength in hog prices as feed costs held relatively steady over the past 2 weeks. Hog profitability remains off the charts, literally, with Q2 margins in particular posting new all-time highs for our...

Margin Watch: Mid-January

January 17, 2014

Hog margins continued to strengthen starting off the New Year, with all of 2014 now well above the 90th percentile of the past 10 years. In fact, Q2 has recently made a new 20-year high and when you look at all four quarters together as an average, the projected margin is the st...

Margin Watch: Mid-December

December 16, 2013

Hog Hog finishing margins were mixed since the end of November, weakening in nearby Q1 while holding relatively steady in both Q2 and Q3. Now that we are in the month of December, we dropped tracking the current Q4 and started monitoring the fourth quarter of 2014 which is just ...

Margin Watch: November

December 2, 2013

Hog With the exception of spot Q4 which is quickly winding down, margins improved slightly since the middle of the month, due mainly to increasing hog prices while steady to lower corn and higher soybean meal provided little benefit from feed costs. Continued concern about how t...

Margin Watch: Mid-November

November 18, 2013

Hog Margins eased since the end of October, following weakness in hog prices and some strength in soybean meal while corn was steady to lower through the first half of the month. From a historical perspective, hog finishing margins remain extraordinarily strong just shy of the 1...