Introduction

This document aims to pull together, in one place of reference, all the various information generated by the USDA Quarterly report. This document includes:

USDA Quarterly Report: March 2007 What It All Means - Expert Commentary In The News - What The Media Says Graph Data From The Report Hog Inventories by State (external link - select State and navigate to file)

For a PRINTABLE VERSION of the full 24 page report in PDF format, including all the tabular data which is not shown in this article, Click Here

US Quarterly Pigs and Hogs Inventory: March 2007

U.S. inventory of all hogs and pigs on March 1, 2007 was 61.1 million head. This was up 1 percent from March 1, 2006, but down 2 percent from December 1, 2006.

Breeding inventory, at 6.08 million head, was up 1 percent from last year, but down slightly from the previous quarter.

Market hog inventory, at 55.0 million head, was up 1 percent from last year, but down 2 percent from last quarter.

The December 2006-February 2007 pig crop, at 26.1 million head, was up 2 percent from 2006 and up 3 percent from 2005.

Sows farrowing during this period totaled 2.87 million head, up 1 percent from both 2006 and 2005. The sows farrowed during this quarter represented 47 percent of the breeding herd.

The average pigs saved per litter was 9.08 for the December 2006-February 2007 period, compared to 9.03 last year. Pigs saved per litter by size of operation ranged from 7.60 for operations with 1-99 hogs and pigs to 9.20 for operations with more than 5,000 hogs and pigs.

U.S. hog producers intend to have 2.91 million sows farrow during the March-May 2007 quarter, down slightly from the actual farrowings, but up 1 percent from 2005.

Intended farrowings for June-August 2007, at 2.92 million sows, are virtually unchanged from both 2006 and 2005.

The total number of hogs under contract, owned by operations with over 5,000 head, but raised by contractees, accounted for 39 percent of the total U.S. hog inventory, unchanged from last year.

Revisions

All inventory and pig crop estimates for March 2006 through December 2006 were reviewed using final pig crop, official slaughter, death loss, and updated import and export data. Based on the findings of this review, small adjustments of less than one-half of one percent were made to the March 1, 2006 total inventory, September 1, 2006 total inventory, March-May 2006 pig crop and the September-November pig crop. An adjustment slightly larger than one-half of one percent was made to the June-August 2006 pig crop.

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What It All Means - Expert Commentary

What the commentators and industry thinkers read into this data:

Dr Mike Brumm, Brumm Swine Consultancy Commentary: March 2007 USDA Hogs and Pigs Report Dr Mike Brumm comments on the latest USDA Hogs and Pigs report

Steve Meyer, Paragon Economics, Inc Hogs and Pigs Report Special Edition; It's not often that information trumps the Hogs & Pigs Report, but that was certainly the case on Friday as USDA released the highly anticipated Prospective Plantings Report for the 2007 crop year.

Jim Long USDA Swine and Grain Reports Bullish for Swine The USDA confirmed in the March 1st Hogs and Pigs Report what many have expected, writes Jim Long.

Shane Ellis, Iowa State University march-2007-usda-hog-and-pig-report What should we expect from the future of the hog market, asks Shane Ellis

More to follow soon...

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In The News - What The Media Says

• USDA Hogs/Pigs Report Doesn’t Show Industry Cutback - Hoosier Ag Today
• Hog market profitability stretches to 37th month - DesMoinesRegister.com

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Graph Data from the Report

Reliability of March 1 Hogs and Pigs Estimates

To review this information, including the Survey Procedures, Estimation Procedures, Revision Policy and Reliability, please download the PDF

Source: Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report, March 2007 - USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service