U.S. pig population shows minimal growth compared to last year

The number of breeding pigs increased by 0.5% compared to last year and amounted to 6.13 million heads, but also decreased by 0.3% compared to the previous quarter. The number of market pigs increased by 0.2% compared to March 2022 and amounted to 66.7 million heads, but current stocks decreased by 2% compared to the previous quarter.

Dennis Smith, commodities broker and livestock analyst at Archer Financial Services, notes: “Stocks are tied to last year's levels in all three major categories at 100%. In addition, the USDA revised the December report upward by 1.8%, essentially admitting that it was completely wrong.”

The number of pigs from December 2022 to February 2023, amounting to 32.1 million heads, increased slightly compared to last year. Representing 47% of the breeding herd, the farrowing of sows during this period amounted to 2.91 million heads. The average number of piglets per litter between December 2022 and February 2023 was 11.02 compared to 10.95 last year.

US hog producers plan to farrow 2.93 million sows during the March-May 2023 quarter, down 1% from actual farrowing in the same period a year earlier and 3% less than in the same period two years earlier. The planned farrowing for June-August 2023 of 2.97 million sows is 3% less than in the same period a year earlier, as well as in the same period two years earlier.

“This report will make it difficult for futures to rise in the summer months,” Smith says. “Now everything depends on demand, and the demand was not good.”

To get accurate data on the US pig industry, NASS surveyed approximately 4,500 operators across the country in the first half of March. The total number of contract hogs owned by businesses with more than 5,000 heads but raised by contractors accounted for 51% of the total US hog population, up 2% from the previous year.

Iowa hog producers accounted for the largest number of hogs among the states, with 23.4 million HEAD. Minnesota had the second largest livestock population with 8.90 million heads. North Carolina was third with 8.00 million heads.