The Chicago Mercantile Exchange said it will add two trading months to its lean hog futures trading contracts, bringing the number of months investors can trade on to 11.

Effective Thursday, May 15, 2008, with the expiration of the May 2008 Lean Hog futures contract on May 14, 2008, CME Group will list July 2009 and August 2009 futures contracts on both the trading floor and the CME Globex platform.

A CME spokeswoman told Meatingplace.com the expansion was made at the request of market users and will give traders the opportunity to hedge their positions out further. It is the first expansion of the trading window for lean hog futures in recent memory.