United States Hog Inventory Up Slightly

Mar 31, 2023

As of March 1, there were 72.9 million hogs and pigs on U.S. farms, up slightly from March 2022 but down 2% from Dec. 1, 2022, according to the Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report published today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

livestock

Other key findings in the report were:

Of the 72.9 million hogs and pigs, 66.7 million were market hogs, while 6.13 million were kept for breeding.
Between December 2022 and February 2023, 32.1 million pigs were weaned on U.S. farms, up slightly from the same time period one year earlier.
From December 2022 through February 2023, U.S. hog and pig producers weaned an average of 11.02 pigs per litter.
U.S. hog producers intend to have 2.93 million sows farrow between March and May 2023, and 2.97 million sows farrow between June and August 2023.
Iowa hog producers accounted for the largest inventory among the states, at 23.4 million head. Minnesota had the second largest inventory at 8.90 million head. North Carolina was third with 8.00 million head.

To obtain an accurate measurement of the U.S. swine industry, NASS surveyed roughly 4,500 operators across the nation during the first half of March. The data collected were received by electronic data recording, mail, telephone and through face-to-face interviews.

There will be a question-and-answer session during a live #StatChat on the @usda_nass Twitter account today at 4:00 p.m. EDT to answer your questions about the Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report. To ask a question, make sure you include the #StatChat to any questions you may have. The #statchat happens every quarter after the Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report is released.

Source : usda.gov

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.