Lean hog futures have performed relatively well over the course of the last month as forward contracts reached their highest values since the start of June 2024. December 2024, April 2025 and June 2025 hit 4-month highs after the market recorded a bottom around July 15th. The last 10 weeks have offered optimism for hedgers looking for an opportunity to reduce exposure risk for the 4th quarter of 2024 and first of 2025.
December lean hog futures reached a 4-month high of $75.80 US per cwt on Sep 24th bringing the weekly average to within the top value of the past 5 years for this week. Only in 2021 were December hogs higher during this week of trade. Seasonally as shown in the 5-year Daily graph for December hogs, all 5 years Dec hogs fell in value from early October to expiry of the Dec contract.
