The USDA has released the March Quarterly Hogs and Pig Report and USDA Livestock Analyst Michael McConnell shares the details from the report.
McConnell said, “As of March 1st, an estimated 74.3 million hogs were in the United States. That was fractionally higher than March 1st a year ago. 5.89 million hogs were in the breeding herd, which is 1% lower than a year ago. And the market hogs were at 1% higher, at 68.4 million head. During the three months from December through February, 2.79 million sows were farrowed with an 11.9 pigs per litter rate. That results in a pig crop of 33.2 million pigs, which is 1% higher than a year ago. However, the pigs per litter rate continues to increase, and that’s offsetting the lower breeding herd and the reduction in farrowings, and that’s contributing to the overall hog supplies. Producers indicated intentions of farrowing 2.86 million sows in the three months between March and May.”
“That’s slightly higher than what they did a year ago. And then for the three months starting in June, producers indicated that they would farrow 2.9 million sows, which is 2% lower than a year ago. The report indicated that we have pretty good supplies of hogs coming down the pike for the next couple of weeks. That lines up with what we’ve seen in the latest slaughter reports. That seems to be the direction where the sector is going, leaning more on productivity to increase the hog supplies. So that should indicate that we have pretty stable pork supplies as we head into grilling season. That being said, demand seems to be holding in there pretty well as well, and the wholesale pork cutout is still up from where it was a year ago,” said McConnell.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.