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hog prices . . . droping |2.00 since January. All jye can predict from here is the price dip which usually marks the onset of Lent It reflects a slack-off in pork demand and recent movement at wholesale and retail levels have already proved disappointing along with a pick up in supply as a lot of fall pigs reach the market size.
The price should recover by Easter, coming this year on April 21. And then comes the most optimistic season for hog producers into the mid-summer high.
Something that may have a n«tictable effect on the hog situation as the year progresses is whether the current favorable corn-hog ratio will hold.
In September, 1956, the corn hog ratio was 10.8 Which means that 100 pounds of live hog would buy 10.8 bushels of corn. By December it was 13.3. And by January it had moved up to 14.1.
It might be smart to assume that kind of improvement would encourage some added late spring pigs. If it happens, the fall price outlook wouldn’t be as optimistic as when the ^intentions report in January said 2% fewer spring pigs.
The fall price might get as low or lower than the 1956 level; betttr than 1955.
SHEEP AND LAMBS
The new livestock inventory report just out shows that for the first time since 1949 Virginia will drop back in sheep numbers this year. The drop-back will exactly match the U. S. decline 2% less
70.7%