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How an increase in pigs per litter is affecting the market

A Purdue University ag economist says U.S. pork producers have steadily increased productivity since the mid-1990’s. 

Michael Langemeier says the number of pigs per litter reached a record high in September.

“Annually, there’s a 0.1 pig increase, that’s 3.1 pigs from 1994 to 2023,” he says.

He tells Brownfield there has been a 74% increase in swine production to meet rising demand.

“If we wouldn’t have had these increases in market weights and we wouldn’t have had this increase in pigs per liter, we would need a lot more sows today than we did in 1994,” he says. “In the sow herd, we only have 5% more sows today than we did 30 years ago.”

Langemeier says the price of U.S. pork will allow it to remain competitive on the global market. 

“Not only have we increased pigs per litter right on track with the historical average, we’re actually above the curve right now as we’ve actually seen larger increases in recent years,” he says. “That’s just really good news from a competitive standpoint.”

Mexico, Canada, and South Korea are the largest buyers of U.S. pork.

AUDIO: Michael Langemeier, Purdue University