Prepared and written by Jeff Swenson, DATCP Livestock and Meat Specialist. The Market Update draws information from several sources, including trade publications, radio broadcasts, agricultural news services, individuals involved in the industry as well as USDA NASS and AMS reports.
Hogs
Packing plants must be registered and approved to export meat to China. The country typically automatically renews registrations for most U.S. plants every five years. Those registrations expired between late February and March 16. China was slow to issue renewals, causing concern that they were using the process as a trade negotiation tactic. The National Pork Producers Council announced Monday that all pork plant registrations—more than 300—have been renewed for another five years.
The average retail price of pork in February was $4.83/pound, 11 cents lower than January and 6 cents higher than February 2024. Pork sales were higher year over year in February. Last week’s estimated harvest of 2.515 million hogs outpaced the prior week by 97,000 head and was 58,000 more than last year.
Trade tensions with Canada remain high, with many asking about that country’s impact on U.S. pork production. The U.S. imports just over 4.5 million feeder pigs from Canada and around 500,000 finished hogs. This represents about 4% of the hogs the U.S. harvests. It is unlikely that all hog imports from Canada would cease even with tariffs in place. The pork cutout value continues to move lower, averaging $97.01 last week for a drop of 77 cents.
Lamb
The cash lamb market has been uneven as of late. Last week’s market was steady to $40/cwt lower. The cutout value gained $4.81 last week, posted at $462.71 last Friday. Fresh meat sales were higher for all major proteins when looking at the last 12 months, but lamb showed the highest gains, with 11.6% growth in volume. Last week’s estimated harvest was 38,000 sheep and lambs, making it 1,000 fewer than the week before and 6,000 fewer than a year ago.
