Pork Powerhouses (2006) - The largest / biggest pork producers

By Successful Farming - This article briefly lists the US top 20 and Canadian top 5 pork / hog producers in 2005/2006, as published by Successful Farming magazine. The article also provides a link to the full Successful Farming Pork Powerhouses Report for 2006.

27 October 2006

4 minute read

After three years of solid profit in the pig business, you would expect more sow expansion than there is. This exclusive Pork Powerhouses data shows 323,665 more sows in production today than one year ago for the largest 20 U.S. producers.

20 largest pork producers in the United States
2006 Rank	2005 Rank	Name of Operation	Headquarters	# Sows 2006	# Sows 2005	Comments
1	1	Smithfield Foods	Smithfield, VA	1,200,115	960,000	995,325 in U.S., rest international. Bought Premium Standard Farms in Sept.
2	NA	Seaboard Foods	Shawnee Mission, KS	213,600	213,600	Includes Christensen, Hanor, TriOak, New Fashion, Eichelberger, Allied Producers’.
3	3	Seaboard Farms	Shawnee Mission, KS	213,600	213,600	No plans for more sows. Marketing pork for Triumph Foods.
4	4	Iowa Select Farms	Iowa Falls, IA	150,000	150,000	Building finishing barns. No plans for sow growth.
5	6	Prestage Farms	Clinton, NC	140,000	140,000	Building finishing barns in Iowa. Shipping weaned pigs from MS to IA.
6	8	The Pipestone System	Pipestone, MN	130,000	110,000	Most growth comes from existing sites that Pipestone is now managing.
7	13	The Maschhoffs	Carlyle, IL	116,000	115,000	Added one 6,000-sow farm, but removed some old Land O’Lakes farms.
8	9	Cargill	Minneapolis, MN	87,000	94,000	Sow reduction due to natural attrition.
9	10	Maxwell Foods, Inc.	Goldsboro, NC	76,000	76,000	Plan to build three 5,000-sow farms in Indiana by late 2007..Òr
10	13	AMVC Management	Audubon, IA.	75,000	65,000	Includes Natural Pork Production II. Acquired a sow farm in Indiana.
11	12	Tyson Foods	Springdale, AR	70,000	70,000	No changes
12	15	Progressive Swine Tech.	Columbus, NE	55,200	50,000	Built a 5,200-sow farm. Also adding finishing.r
13	14	Hormel Foods	Austin, MN	51,000	51,000	Adding 10,000 sows in Wyoming.
14	16	Nebraska Pork Partners	Columbus, NE	45,000	45,000	No plans for expansion, but looking for opportunities.
15	18	Wakefield Pork	Gaylord, MN	41,000	38,600	Added one 2,400-sow farm.
16	17	Hatfield Quality Meats	Hatfield, PA	36,100	41,100	Exited some farms. Sow expansion planned for PA and IN in 2007.
17	20	Whitestone Farms	Burnsville, MN	35,000	35,000	No expansion planned.h.
18	22	Texas Farm	Perryton, TX	33,500	29,000	Not expanding at this time.
19	21	Holden Farms	Northfield, MN	32,000	30,000	Added 2,000 sows
20	22	Coharie Farms	Clinton, NC	31,000	29,000	All growth is internal.
			TOTALS	3,017,315	2,693,650	Growth of 323,665 sows.
Source: Successful Farming

5 largest pork producers in Canada (excluding Quebec)
2006 Rank	2005 Rank	Name of Operation	Headquarters	# Sows 2006	# Sows 2005	Comments
1	1	Maple Leaf Foods	Landmark, Manitoba	116,000	118,000	No sow expansion planned. Still adding finishing space.
2	2	Hytek	LaBroquerie, Manitoba	54,000	48,000	Added sow nucleus in North Dakota.
3	4	The Puratone Corp.	Niverville, Manitoba	46,000	27,500	Acquired the additional sows. No plans to build, but may acquire more.
4	3	Big Sky Farms	Humboldt, Saskatchewan	41,000	40,000	Now completing a 6,000-sow farm. Will grow to 47,000 by spring 2007.
5	5	Stomp Pork Farms	LeRoy, Saskatchewan	27,000	27,000	No plans for expansion.
			TOTALS	284,000	260,500	Growth of 23,500 sows.
Source: Successful Farming