Just caught that lean hog futures took a pretty solid hit to kick off the new year. February contracts were down 42 cents for the week alone, with the nearby months posting losses ranging from 60 cents to a dollar. Not exactly the rally traders were hoping for heading into Q1.

What caught my eye is the USDA pork cutout value actually climbed 83 cents to $94.57 per cwt on the Friday report, but that didn't seem to help the hog market much. The CME Lean Hog Index was basically flat, sitting at $82.26. Slaughter numbers came in at 2.228 million head for the week, which is up compared to last year's similar period.

The pullback in hog prices seems pretty typical for this time of year though. Feb contracts closed around $84.10, April around $89.10, and May tracking near $93.38. Worth keeping an eye on if you're following the lean hogs news closely. The question now is whether we'll see some stabilization or if this weakness continues into spring.