“The breeding herd inventory is not going to shrink much more. I had -6 for December of this coming year, and at one time I thought we might have to take it down 10. I'm going to be surprised if we're down much at all year-over-year when we come to December 2024,” Meyer said. “Productivity gains are going to keep our numbers and pork supplies near or above the last years. And I don't think we're going to see pork supplies decline much until 2025, and given the profitability changes we've seen, maybe not then.”
For the under-50-pounds weight category, there were 20.749 million head, up 1% from the year prior. In the 50-to-119 pounds group, there were 19.333 million head, a 1% increase from 2023.
In the 120-to-179-pounds group, there were 15.804 million head, a slight increase from last year at this time. Finally, for the 180-and-over group there were 12.670 million head, down 1% from 2023.
"I think we're going to have plenty of hogs in the fourth quarter," Meyer said. "Right now, I'm pretty concerned about slaughter capacity, especially with the loss of the Perry, Iowa plant."
Between December 2023 and February 2024, 33.1 million pigs were weaned on U.S. farms, up 2% from the same time period one year earlier. Sows farrowing during this period totaled 2.88 million head, down 3% from the previous year. The sows farrowed during this quarter represented 48% of the breeding herd.
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