2024 Pig Crop Performed Well, But Livability Should Remain a Focus

Post-weaning mortality is improving and recent data compiled by MetaFarms shows the 2024 pig crop performed well.

“Pig livability and performance post-weaning are two significant drivers of profitability,” explains Chris Hostetler, National Pork Board director of animal science. “Documenting changes in specific measures of productivity over time helps the industry identify trends while benchmarking the top 10%, middle 50% and bottom 10% allows individual pork producers to focus their limited time and labor resources. This report provides valuable information about the historical and current state of the industry and valuable insights that can help pork producers make important management decisions on their farms.”

MetaFarms released the “Production Analysis Summary for U.S. Pork Industry: 2020-2024” in partnership with NPB to help producers learn from each other through this benchmarking effort representing a dataset of more than 18.0 million nursery pigs, more than 18.2 million finish pigs and 10.3 million single-stocked wean-to-finish pigs from farms across the U.S.

“Don’t miss the opportunity to use this data on your farm,” says Rachel Johnson, technical account and product support lead at MetaFarms, Inc.

Evaluating each key performance indicator (KPI) and seeking to understand where opportunities for improvement exist is beneficial, she explains. In previous roles, this is the type of data Johnson says she sought to help guide the decision-making process.

“There should always be opportunities to improve,” she adds. “Sitting down with the data to figure out where you can get better is key. Who can I lean on to gain the knowledge that I’m missing? If I have a partner or a competitor who is really good at week one care, and I can see that in their numbers, what can I learn from them to implement in my system? I don’t think this industry is secretive. We all want to do better together.”