USDA Releases September 2024 Hogs and Pigs Report: Key Takeaways for the Swine Industry

Sep 30, 2024

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has published its latest Hogs and Pigs report for September 2024, providing critical data on inventory levels and key production trends in the swine industry. The following are the main highlights of the report:

Inventory Overview

The total inventory of hogs and pigs in the United States as of September 1, 2024, was 74.8 million head, reflecting a slight decrease of 1% compared to the same period last year.
The breeding inventory was reported at 6.13 million head, also down 1% from the previous year.
Market hog inventory reached 68.7 million head, down 1% from 2023.

Breeding and Farrowing Intentions

The report indicates that the number of sows farrowing during the June-August 2024 period totaled 2.92 million head, which was 2% below the same period a year earlier.
The number of pigs saved per litter was reported at an average of 11.3, relatively unchanged from the previous year.

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Video: Screening Nursery Ingredients - Kynna Crawford

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Kynna Crawford, Graduate Research Assistant at South Dakota State University, discusses how Plackett-Burman designs can help screen nursery diet ingredients for early post-weaning feed intake. She explains why low intake after weaning contributes to stress and mortality, how screening trials can evaluate multiple ingredients in a single study, and how the approach can support both research and commercial nursery nutrition decisions. Listen now on all major platforms!

Click here to read the full research article: https://academic.oup.com/jas/article/...

"A single screening trial can help identify which nursery ingredients deserve deeper research for early post-weaning feed intake."

Meet the guest: Kynna Crawford / kynna-crawford-a2610a3aa is a Master's student in Animal Sciences at South Dakota State University, where her work focuses on swine nutrition and nursery pig management. Her research examines strategies to alleviate weaning stress, including dietary approaches and screening tools to identify ingredients that may promote early feed intake. Learn more from Kynna Crawford on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.