Minor Expansion in US Hog Herd Confirmed

Mar 30, 2023

As expected, the USDA’s latest quarterly hogs and pigs report confirmed some minor expansion in the US hog herd.

Released Thursday, the report pegged the total US inventory of all hogs and pigs as of March at 72.86 million head, up about 0.2% from 72.68 million on the same date last year. Pre-report expectations were for a slightly more aggressive year-over-year increase of 0.3%.

The March 1 breeding inventory, at 6.13 million head was up roughly 0.5% on the year, compared to trade ideas of 0.6%. The number of market hogs came in at 66.73 million, an increase of about 0.2% from 66.59 million a year ago, but still also slightly below expectations.

The December 2022-February 2023 pig crop, at 32.1 million head, was up slightly from last year. Sows farrowing during this period totaled 2.91 million head, down slightly from previous year. The average pigs saved per litter was 11.02 for the December 2022-February 2023 period, compared to 10.95 last year.

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Video: Screening Nursery Ingredients - Kynna Crawford

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Kynna Crawford, Graduate Research Assistant at South Dakota State University, discusses how Plackett-Burman designs can help screen nursery diet ingredients for early post-weaning feed intake. She explains why low intake after weaning contributes to stress and mortality, how screening trials can evaluate multiple ingredients in a single study, and how the approach can support both research and commercial nursery nutrition decisions. Listen now on all major platforms!

Click here to read the full research article: https://academic.oup.com/jas/article/...

"A single screening trial can help identify which nursery ingredients deserve deeper research for early post-weaning feed intake."

Meet the guest: Kynna Crawford / kynna-crawford-a2610a3aa is a Master's student in Animal Sciences at South Dakota State University, where her work focuses on swine nutrition and nursery pig management. Her research examines strategies to alleviate weaning stress, including dietary approaches and screening tools to identify ingredients that may promote early feed intake. Learn more from Kynna Crawford on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.