Volatile hogs keep meat prices flexible

Hogs reproduce in litters of up to 10-12 baby pigs, several times a year. Consequently, the pork market is one of constant volatility, since the supply can expand and contract so rapidly.

Cows have one calf a year, so it takes several years to breed a glut of beef or milk. You can do it in 90 days or so with pigs. Chickens are much more controllable, since you only have to actually hatch the number of fertilized eggs you need at any given time. The big factory chicken outfits like Tyson and Perdue have the market cornered, and as a practical matter, you can't even get in the business without buying fertilized eggs to hatch from them--with a contract to sell the chickens back to them at a certain age.

Pigs are nearly the same, since Smithfield and Seaboard have the market pretty well cornered in hogs too. Cattle don't lend themselves to such rigid control, as they graze on grasslands that really aren't good for anything else, and take a lot longer to bring to market.

2008 has been a volatile year in the hog business. Record exports overseas have kept the market from crashing altogether, because U.S. farmers have shelled out pigs in record numbers. Retail pork prices are down, compared to beef and chicken, but are still largely at profitable levels because of foreign sales, keeping the domestic market from being glutted.

Retail beef prices are very high compared to pork or chicken, but kept from going even higher by the competition from other meats..