The USDA?s quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report showed 72.5 million hogs and pigs, down 1% from last year and down slightly from last quarter. Altin Kalo, Chief Economist at Steiner Consulting Group says inventory increased significantly for a couple of years, but we have come down from those numbers in part due to China.
?They seem to have resolved some of the issues because of the African swine fever that hit them. We don’t have that export market. One thing that producers always need to remember is that in the last 15 years, two thirds of the demand for our pork, the growth in pork supplies has come from exports.?
Kalo expresses his surprise for the increase in breeding numbers, despite there being a raise in higher grain prices and lower exports.
?So, what drove that increase? And you know, we can all speculate as to what the reasons are, you can point at Prop 12 that got delayed, and maybe there’s a potential that that’s going to go away, hopefully. It also could be that we reduce the breeding herd by about seven percent since December 2019, and so maybe that’s been enough, you know, it’s been enough liquidation.?
According to the USDA, Iowa accounted for the largest inventory, followed by Minnesota and North Carolina. Other key insights of the report include Breeding inventory at 6.17 million head, down 1% from last year and up 1% from March 1; Market hog inventory at 66.4 million head, down 1% from last year and slightly down from March 1; March through May 2022 pig crop at 32.9 million head, down 1% from last year; and the average pigs saved per litter was 11 for the March-May period compared to 10.95 last year.
Producers can visit porkcheckoff.org for more market information.
