The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Livestock and Grain Market News office in Des Moines, IA, currently publishes numerous regional and national daily and weekly market reports covering a wide variety of hog and pork prices.
The Des Moines office is responsible for all Mandatory Hog Reports which require plants slaughtering 100,000 or more hogs annually to electronically submit daily purchase and slaughter data.
From this submitted data, reports are generated and released within one hour of the packer submission times. Some of the required data includes base price, head count per lot, purchase type, state of origin, net price and carcass measurements.
The Iowa and Central U.S. Direct Delivered Feeder Pig Report is a weekly, voluntary report released every Friday. The report provides market price information for segregated early weaned (SEW) pigs and for feeder pigs in weight increments of 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 lb. This weekly trade represents 50,000 to 100,000 head.
Pork cut price information is collected from packers, processors, retailers and traders who voluntarily provide information on negotiated transactions. Information is confirmed by talking to both parties to insure that the prices AMS reports are an accurate reflection of market conditions.
The National Carlot Pork report includes prices for commonly traded wholesale items from which primal values and cutout values are derived through mathematical calculations based on average industry yields.
The weekly By-product Hog Drop Value reflects the total estimated value of offal from a typical slaughter hog, which is also mathematically derived from prices obtained on the Byproduct Price Report.
These reports, as well as reports for cattle, beef and lamb, are available on the web at: www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/mncs/index.htm. Additional information concerning any of the hog and pork reports and historical data can be obtained by calling (515) 284-4460 or emailing: desm.lgmn@usda.gov.
Bill Sumpter is the voluntary meat reporting supervisor at the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service in Des Moines, IA.