CME, but our basis is shifted to the June contract as of April 1st. Con-

tract months are February, April, June, July, August, October and December.

Due to data limitation the February contract is not included in the basis

calculations. Thus, the nearest month for January, is April.


 Basis Tables and Charts

 The basis by week for the entire period 1972-1980 is given in Table 1.

The column labeled "weekday" corresponds to the Friday release date of

the Florida Livestock Market Report. The approximate relationship between

week number and month, and week within the month is given in Table 2.

 The column in Table 1 labeled "180-200 lb.", is the average basis

of 180-199 pound barrows and gilts while the next column, "200-240 Ib."

is the average basis of 200-240 pound barrows and gilts. During the

period covered the weight range reported changed three times so that

slight weight variations are incorporated in the average basis for the

entire period. The weight ranges used in the reporting system are shown

in Table 3.

 The average basis, as well as the standard deviations for both

weight ranges over the entire period, is given in Table 4. The number

4.20 at the top of the first column, for example, means that the Live

Oak cash price in the first week of January is $4.20 less than the price

of the nearby futures contract, which is April. The second number down

in the first column, 1.67 means that the average Florida cash price in

the second week of January is $1.67 below the April contract futures

quote.

 Following is a table to help ascertain the relations in positive

and negative numbers between the futures and cash markets.