It has been a wild year for U.S. pork producers. It started out dreary but then hopes picked up when the Phase One agreement was signed with China. It again turned dark with COVID-19 when packers lacked labor and had to shut fabrication plants due to disease outbreaks. Subsequent improvements in packing capacity and Chinese purchases of pork have helped but the margins realized by hog operations remain negative. However, there is a substantial difference between losing $60/head and losing less than $20/head. And there is a difference between making nearly $50/head and earning just $10/head when things were better in late May/early June. That 66 to 80 percent spread is strictly determined by whether a producer hedged his/her production or n...

TAGS – Livestock, China, North America