The total inventory was down one percent from one year ago. The market hog supply declined one percent. USDA reported the largest quarter-to-quarter decline in the breeding herd since 2014. Independent market analyst Dale Durcholz says the biggest surprise was the numerous revisions USDA made to previous reports. “The difficulties we had in the slaughter industry and the shift in terms of when hogs were slaughtered and we really don’t know how many hogs were eventually euthanized. That creates a real nightmare for an analyst trying to utilize last year’s numbers and it will probably continue to add volatility here.”
