look in the left column, I'll leave you to figure out what this website is, ===============================================================
What's to figure out, TG, all one has to do is right click on the image and check out the properties option of the drop down menu. (www.thefishsite.com)
Btw, we didn't have 'lean' hog futures when I was the merc.....
Just them plain old everyday hogs, but of course they still had to fall within the delivery specifications.
If you have a minute, I'll tell you how important hogs are to our economy compared to people... <g>
People are counted via census every ten years while hogs are counted, by weight bracket, fourty times in the same ten year period.
Yep, four times a year! Every three months. All hog producers are required by law to count and submit their existing hog numbers broken down by weight bracket (0-60#, 60-119#, 120-179#, 180-220# and over 220#) as well as their future farrowing intentions.
This was essential to us hog and belly traders because we could get an approximation by adding 2.5# of growth per per day as to when periods of peak and waning supply of marketable hogs would occur. The price of corn had a lot to do with the producer's breeding plans and often led to a somewhat earlier or later slaughter of a % the herds.
Of course, half of those "Hogs and Pigs on farms" reports cover only the 16 largest hog producing states while the other half were nationwide in scope.
Did you know that the average daily Federally inspected hog slaughter is approximately 315,000 hogs and 110,000 cattle.
Well, at least that is what it was when I left the floor in the mid 80's. I haven't kept up with it at all, but I imagine that the numbers are prolly pretty much the same if not a bit larger to accomodate the growing population.
Here's are the results from the USDA's latest Quarterly (Sept 04) Hogs and Pigs report and I think you'll have to pick up a Harry Potter book to find a more fascinating read. <vbg>
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