This week Triumph Foods and Seaboard Foods announced plans for a joint venture to build a hog slaughter plant in Sioux City, Iowa. The plant is expected to cost $264 million, slaughter 3 million hogs per year and begin operating in the summer of 2017.
Triumph currently operates the nation's newest large hog slaughter plant which opened in January 2006 in St Joseph, MO. Seaboard operates the second newest big plant which opened in 1995 in Guyman, OK.
In December, Clemens Foods announced plans to build a $255 million hog slaughter plant in Coldwater, MI.
The May WASDE contained its first forecast of 2016 production and prices. USDA expects 2016 pork production to be up 1.2% from this year and they expect this year to be up 6.8% from last year. Barrow and gilt prices averaged $76.03/cwt live in 2014. They are looking for prices to be $26-28 lower this year and another $2-4 lower in 2016 than this year.
This was the seventh consecutive week with higher hog prices. Thursday's average negotiated carcass price for plant delivered hogs was $79.39/cwt which is $1.88 higher than a week earlier.
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