After several years of constrained supplies, pork production will climb by 5 percent this year, says economist Chris Hurt of Purdue. “Pork producers are gearing up to provide their customers with what they want and that is ‘More Pork’ and ‘More Bacon,'” writes Hurt at farmdoc daily. Hog farmers have expanded the breeding herd by 4 percent, encouraged by high market prices that crested at a record $76 per 100 pounds last year.
Market prices will be lower this year, at an average $60 per hundredweight, says Hurt, but with average production costs of $53, farmers will see “a strong $22 of profit per head produced.””Producers may express some disappointment that the extraordinary profits of 2014 will not continue…Most will be happy to accept 2014 and 2015 as the best two consecutive profit years in modern hog production,” says Hurt.