Overall hog inventory in Wisconsin and the United States overall is down from last year according to the latest USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service – Hogs and Pigs report.
On December 1, 2021, there were 370,000 hogs and pigs on Wisconsin farms. The December 1 inventory was unchanged from last December’s 370,000 head. Breeding hogs accounted for 52,000 head of the total inventory, while market hogs totaled 318,000 head.
The annual pig crop was 1.06 million head, down 12 percent from last year, resulting from 93,000 sows farrowed during the December 2020-November 2021 period. The average pigs saved per litter was 11.39 for the year, down slightly from last year.
United States inventory of all hogs and pigs on December 1, 2021 was 74.2 million head. This was down 4 percent from December 1, 2020, and down 1 percent from September 1, 2021.
Breeding inventory, at 6.18 million head, was up slightly from last year, but down slightly from the previous quarter.
Market hog inventory, at 68.0 million head, was down 4 percent from last year, and down 1 percent from last quarter.
The September-November 2021 pig crop, at 33.7 million head, was down 4 percent from 2020. Sows farrowing during this period totaled 3.01 million head, down 5 percent from 2020. The sows farrowed during this quarter represented 49 percent of the breeding herd. The average pigs saved per litter was 11.19 for the September-November period, compared to 11.05 last year.
United States hog producers intend to have 2.94 million sows farrow during the December 2021-February 2022 quarter, up slightly from the actual farrowings during the same period one year earlier, but down 8 percent from the same period two years earlier. Intended farrowings for March-May 2022, at 3.01 million sows, are down 1 percent from the same period one year earlier, and down 4 percent from the same period two years earlier.
The total number of hogs under contract owned by operations with over 5,000 head, but raised by contractees, accounted for 47 percent of the total United States hog inventory, down 1 percent from the previous year.
