Special Report

Pork profits are slim

Heading into 2015, an ag economist had profits in the pork industry in the $30 per head range.  But, Paragon Economics president and CEO Steve Meyer says in recent months – that has all changed.  “It really started when the port slow down started to back up some product and it pushed the wholesale market down,” he says.  “It pushed margins down for packers and then pushed prices down for hogs.  And as prices went down we had a lot of heavy hogs available and producers said if they were going to be cheaper next week, we’re going to sell them this week.”

Meyer tells Brownfield as the March Hogs and Pigs report gets closer, there is one thing the market will be closely watching.  “What did the litter size for December to February do,” he says.  “We went into this expecting a normal litter size change from the fall thinking litter sizes would be up 5 percent or so this winter.  But, they may be up more than that because we haven’t lost a lot of pigs from the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus from what we know.”

If that’s the case, he says there will be plenty of pigs to meet pork demand the rest of the year.