University of Missouri agricultural economist Ron Plain says the U-S wholesale-retail pork price spread was a record high in March.
He says the sharp drop in pork prices has pushed that spread to over 2 dollars and 50 cents a pound.
Plain reports that while retail pork prices peaked in September in the U-S - and have declined each month since - the rate of decline has not been as fast as the drop in hog prices.
Looking at last week's U-S hog market - Plain reports the pork cutout value of $66.63 per hundredweight was up 91 cents from the previous week but down over 55 dollars from a year ago.
The negotiated carcass price for plant delivered hogs averaged $62.14.
That's more than 4 dollars higher than a week earlier but almost 49 dollars lower than last year.
The University of Missouri Hog Outlook has U-S slaughter last week reaching 2 point 243 million head - up 3 point 3 per cent from the previous week and 12 per cent higher than a year ago.
The outlook has U-S hog slaughter to date up 5 point 2 per cent from the same time in 2014.
