U.S. pork farms contained more than 74.3 million hogs and pigs as of March first. That’s a two percent climb from March of 2018, but it’s down slightly from December first of last year according to the latest USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report.
It didn't make a big market splash as the numbers came in right where industry analysts expected they would. NASS says 67.9 million of those were market hogs. The other 6.3 million were kept back for breeding. Farmers weaned 33 million pigs on U.S. farms between December of 2018 and February, up three percent from the same period last year. From December through February, producers also weaned an average of 10.7 pigs per litter. Hog producers intend to have 3.1 million sows farrow between March and May of this year, as well as 3.2 billion sows farrow between June and August.
Iowa has the largest inventory among the major hog-producing states, coming in at 23.5 million head. North Carolina and Minnesota had the second and third-largest inventories respectively. Carolina had 8.9 million head, while Minnesota had 8.7 million.