U-S hog slaughter numbers appear to be rebounding.
University of Missouri economist Ron Plain reports hog slaughter last week was up 15 per cent from Christmas week and up 0 point 3 per cent from New Year's week last year.
Plain says that's the first week since February 22nd with U-S hog slaughter above the year-ago level.
Plain's weekly commentary posted on swineweb.com says third quarter U-S hog slaughter was down 7 point 6 per cent from 2013.
He says that's largely because of the high death loss last winter to the PED virus.
It's expected last summer's death loss from PED was modest.
Plain says if that's true, U-S hog slaughter during the first quarter of 2015 could be equal to or above the year-ago level.
