Iowa inventory – record high pig numbers

30-09-2008 | |

A record high number of hogs and pigs have been recorded on Iowa farms during the 1st Sept. inventory. The inventory was up 900,000 from a year ago.

The June to August 2008 pig crop was 4.79 million head. A total of 510,000 sows farrowed with an average litter size of 9.40 pigs per sow. As of Sept. 1, producers planned to farrow 510,000 head of sows and gilts in the Sept. to Nov. 2008 quarter.

Farrowing intentions for the December 2008 to February 2009 period were estimated at 490,000 as of Sept. 1. US inventory of all hogs and pigs on Sept. 1, 2008 was 68.7 million head. This was up 2 percent from Sept. 1, 2007, and up 1 percent from June 1, 2008.

Breeding inventory, at 6.05 million head, was down 3 percent from last year and down 1 percent from the previous quarter. Market hog inventory, at 62.6 million head, was up 3 percent from last year and up 2 percent from last quarter.

The June to Aug. 2008 pig crop, at 29.3 million head, was up 1 percent from 2007 and up 10 percent from 2006. Sows farrowing during this period totalled 3.08 million head, down 2 percent from 2007 but up 6 percent from 2006. The sows farrowed during this quarter represented 51 percent of the breeding herd. The average pigs saved per litter was 9.51 for the June to Aug. 2008 period, compared to 9.29 last year.

Pigs saved per litter by size of operation ranged from 7.80 for operations with 1 to 99 hogs and pigs to 9.60 for operations with more than 5,000 hogs and pigs.

US hog producers intend to have 3.01 million sows farrow during the Sept. to Nov. 2008 quarter, down 5 percent from the actual farrowings during the same period in 2007, but up 2 percent from 2006. Intended farrowings for Dec. 2008 toFeb. 2009, at 2.98 million sows, are down 3 percent from 2008 but up 3 percent from 2007.

The total number of hogs under contract owned by operations with over 5,000 head, but raised by contractees, accounted for 43 percent of the total US hog inventory, up from 40 percent last year.

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