Minor Decline in U.S. Hog Counts Reported

Mar 28, 2025
By Farms.com

USDA Unveils Updated Statistics on Hog and Pig Numbers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service has released its latest Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report, showing a slight downturn in the U.S. swine population.

As of the start of March 2025, there were 74.5 million hogs and pigs on U.S. farms, reflecting a slight year-over-year decrease and a 1% fall since December 2024.

The breakdown of the numbers shows 68.5 million are market hogs, with the remainder, approximately 5.98 million, being kept for breeding purposes. During the period from December 2024 to February 2025, producers weaned 33.7 million pigs, maintaining an average of 11.65 pigs per litter.

Producers are gearing up for the next farrowing seasons, projecting to farrow 2.91 million sows from March to May 2025 and another 2.96 million from June to August. Iowa leads the pack in hog inventories with 24.3 million, followed by Minnesota's 9.2 million and North Carolina's 8.1 million.

The data for this report was collected from 4,455 hog producers nationwide, employing a mix of online submissions, mail, phone, and in-person interviews, demonstrating the rigorous efforts to accurately assess the state of the U.S. hog industry.

Video: Four Star Pork Industry Conf - Back to Basics: Fundamentals drive vaccine performance

At a time when disease pressure continues to challenge pork production systems across the United States, vaccination remains one of the most valuable and heavily debated tools available to veterinarians and producers.

Speaking at the 2025 Four Star Pork Industry Conference in Muncie, Indiana, Dr. Daniel Gascho, veterinarian at Four Star Veterinary Service, encouraged the industry to return to fundamentals in how vaccines are selected, handled and administered across sow farms, gilt development units and grow-finish operations.

Gascho acknowledged at the outset that vaccination can quickly become a technical and sometimes tedious topic. But he said that real-world execution, not complex immunology, is where most vaccine failures occur.