The world’s largest pork market, China, may be experiencing a more than 50 percent decline in production and yet U.S. hog prices are softening. Part of the problem is that hog slaughter as a percent of packing capacity is well above year-ago levels (see graph below). The ratio of slaughter to packing capacity is running at 89.6 percent, versus 86.6 percent in 2018. As this ratio increases, prices tend to decrease since packers don’t want to buy hogs when their hook space is full.  The increase in slaughter to packing ratio is occurring at the same time there is a seasonal downturn in hog and pork prices. Prices this year began to soften a month or two earlier.  Some analysts this week highlighted how U.S. pork expo...

TAGS – Livestock, China, North America