US negotiated cash hog markets are expected to resume their bullish trend this week after a setback last week.

Tyler Fulton, director of risk management for Hams Marketing Services, notes that hog slaughter maintained its growth trend of three to four per cent higher than year ago levels with last week’s total coming in at 2.364 million hogs, 3.7 per cent larger than the same week in 2016.

He talked about the impact of pork bellies and bacon on the cash markets.

“Most of the pork bellies are converted into Bacon by processors and that demand is almost exclusively in the United States,” commented Fulton. “There's been just really solid demand on that side.”

He added that summer month lean hog futures experienced resistance in making further gains last week, after hitting new contract highs.