After posting losses in the first quarter of 2015 hog prices are back in the black. Steve Meyer, vice president of pork analysis for Express Markets Inc. says hog prices were pressured in the first quarter by the West Coast port strike, higher dollar and heavier weights. However, prices have rebounded nicely in the second quarter. He’s looking for only a slight decline in hog prices the rest of 2015 as the herd expands.

In fact, he says pork producers went from losing $6 per hundred weight in the first quarter to making a nice profit for summer. And Meyer expects that profitability to continue, especially with the lower corn prices.

So he anticipates pork profits to stay around $20 per hundred weight, even with the lower hog prices into the end of 2015 and first quarter of 2016. He says the big unknown is whether or not PEDV will re-emerge in the winter of 2016.

He doesn’t see a big impact from bird flu unless the outbreak spreads to the East Coast.