Pork packers saw their best week for margins in nearly a year last week with the week’s average at $16/head. The Pork Cutout was down $2/cwt. while the Lean Carcass Price was off $4/cwt.
The average farrow-to-finish margin was estimated at $43.72/head for the week and down from $51.84/head from the prior week.
This market volatility further supports there is little incentive to rapidly build the inventory with last week’s margin the lowest since April.
View the full Sterling Pork Profit Tracker for the week ending Oct. 25.
The Beef and Pork Profit Trackers are calculated by Sterling Marketing, Vale, Ore.
(Note: The Sterling Beef Profit Tracker calculates an average beef cutout value for the week in its estimates for feedyard and packer margins. Other prices in the weekly Profit Tracker also are calculated weekly averages. Feedyard margins are calculated on a cash basis only with no adjustment for risk management practices. The Beef and Pork Profit Trackers are intended only as a benchmark for the average cash costs of feeding cattle and hogs. Sterling Marketing is a private, independent beef and pork consulting firm not associated with any packing company or livestock feeding enterprise.)
