United States-No more Canadian pigs will be handled by large processors.

UNITED STATES-ONLY US BRED PIGS WILL BE HANDLED.

Next month, some U.S. pork packers, including Smithfield Foods, the nation’s largest hog producer and processor, will begin to process only U.S. born and raised hogs. This has left many U.S. swine producers that collectively purchase hundreds of thousands of feeder pigs from Canada wondering where and at what prices they will be able to sell the grown hogs.

Some producers are concerned that the cash market will split, with discounts applied to Canadian hogs. They also question whether USDA market reports will reflect any price differences between Canadian-origin hogs and U.S. born and raised animals. The blame for this market split is being place squarely on the Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling Law.

Private analyst Bob Brown in Edmond , Oklahoma thinks the discontinuation of some plants accepting Canadian hogs will roil the market for a while - but after two weeks or so we will likely not hear about it much. Some analysts and livestock dealers do believe that if a two-tiered cash hog market does develop; lower prices paid for Canadian-born hogs could drag down the average price for all hogs