By Kelsey Gee

CHICAGO--Bids for hogs in the cash markets by U.S. pork packers are flat to narrowly higher Friday, as plants add hogs to production schedules for the week ahead.

Bids are mostly steady with the previous prices paid to 50 cents higher, and Thursday's top sales ranged from $45 to $49 per hundredweight on a live basis, and from $52 to $64 per hundredweight on a carcass basis--a form of pricing that accounts for the meat yielded from the animal.

Heavy winds in northern Iowa and Minnesota early this week prevented some plant operators from delivering hogs, spurring stronger demand for hogs to process later this week in some regions, while others have ample supplies.

Projections for Saturday's load of hogs to process total 200,000 head. For the week, an estimated 2.269 million head are expected to have been slaughtered.

The last available Wall Street Journal packer margin index for Thursday was positive $19.48 per head, compared with positive $24.49 per head on Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Thursday the wholesale pork price, known in the industry as the cutout, fell $1.77 to $75.16 to $76.93 a hundred pounds, based on Omaha, Neb., price quotes.

Write to Kelsey Gee at kelsey.gee@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 12, 2016 10:34 ET (15:34 GMT)