Agricultural News
No Major Surprises Seen in Final Hog Count of 2010
Tue, 28 Dec 2010 6:52:37 CST
The latest USDA Hogs and Pigs Report shows the United States Hog Inventory down 1 Percent.
United States inventory of all hogs and pigs on December 1, 2010 was 64.3 million head. This was down 1 percent from December 1, 2009, and down 2 percent from September 1, 2010.
Breeding inventory, at 5.78 million head, was down 1 percent from last year, but up slightly from the previous quarter. Market hog inventory, at 58.5 million head, was down 1 percent from last year, and down 2 percent from last quarter.
The September-November 2010 pig crop, at 28.2 million head, was down slightly from 2009. Sows farrowing during this period totaled 2.85 million head, down 2 percent from 2009. The sows farrowed during this quarter represented 49 percent of the breeding herd. The average pigs saved per litter was a record high 9.89 for the September-November 2010 period, compared to 9.70 last year. Pigs saved per litter by size of operation ranged from 7.70 for operations with 1-99 hogs and pigs to 10.00 for operations with more than 5,000 hogs and pigs.
United States hog producers intend to have 2.86 million sows farrow during the December 2010-February 2011 quarter, down 1 percent from the actual farrowings during the December 2009-February 2010 quarter, and down 5 percent from December 2008-February 2009 quarter. Intended farrowings for March-May 2011, at 2.86 million sows, are down 2 percent from 2010 and down 5 percent from 2009.
The total number of hogs under contract owned by operations with over 5,000 head, but raised by contractees, accounted for 45 percent of the total United States hog inventory, up from 44 percent last year.
Paul Nelson with AgWeb writes of the report "The report was neutral with the exception of another record performance in the pigs/litter at 9.89, which is up 2%. Breeding herd seems to have found its groove with fairly stable numbers for the past 4 quarters. This may change in the months ahead as producers wrestle with high price feed. The futures market remain very sensitive to input cost, as seen in new contract highs in Jun, July and August. Today's report sets 2011 production at or near 2010 levels- no surprises, pigs/litter tune up the leveraging of the breeding herd."
For Oklahoma, the breeding herd was unchanged from the last report at 410,000 sows reported. The market hog numbers were up 2% to 1.92 million and the total Oklahoma hog count was 2.33 million, which is the 8th largest hog herd by state in the United States.
Click here for the full report from USDA issued on Monday afternoon.
Click on the LISTENING BAR to hear comments about the report from Karl Skold of Westside Economics and John Nalivka with Sterling Marketing.
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