PorkNetwork.com adds Sterling Pork Profit Tracker

Sterling Marketing Inc. and John Nalivka, president, Vale, Ore., have been providing DroversCattleNetwork with the weekly Sterling Beef Profit Tracker. Now, that service has been expanded to PorkNetwork, and includes the Pork Profit Tracker.  

It will provide a snapshot of producer profitability as well as packer margins. The Sterling Beef and Pork Profit Trackers are calculated using actual weekly prices for both cattle and hogs, feed costs, beef and pork cutout prices, drop credits and other factors that influence profit margins.

For pork, producer margins declined more than $7 per head last week, but farrow-to-finish margins remain solidly profitable. Pork packer margins held steady at nearly $9 profit per head, the Sterling Pork Profit Tracker reports.

For the week ending Feb.18, the Sterling Pork Profit Tracker pegs margins as follows:

• Average farrow-to-finish margins:  $15.10 per head.
• Average pork packer margins:   $8.75 per head.

Western Corn Belt negotiated hog prices were $86.68 per hundredweight, $1.10 lower than the previous week. A year ago, cash hog prices were $80.96 per hundredweight, resulting in profits of $14.89 per head. For more detail, clidk here.

For cattle feeders, profit margins jump an astonishing $137 per head last week as cash fed cattle prices gained $6 per hundredweight, setting new record-highs. Meanwhile, packers had another week of declining margins, with per-head losses near $80, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker.

Cash fed cattle traded at $129.06 per hundredweight, about $5.10 higher than the previous week. A year ago cattle feeders sold cash cattle at $109.99 per hundredweight which resulted in profits of $154.15 per head.

The Sterling Beef Profit Tracker for the week ending February 18: ttp://media.cattlenetwork.com/documents/SPTBeef22012.pdfh

• Average feedyard margins: $73.28 per head.
• Average packer margins:   -$79.65 per head.
• Sterling Profit Quotient:  200.5.

For mkore detail, click here.

The Sterling Beef and Pork Profit Trackers are produced by Sterling Marketing Inc. and John Nalivka, president, Vale, Ore., and are now published weekly by PorkNetwork.