U.S. hog inventory falls 2% from last year to 74.3M head

As of Sept. 1, the United States was home to 74.302 million hogs and pigs, down 2% from a year ago, but up 2% from last quarter’s inventory, according to the latest Hogs and Pigs report published Thursday by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Market hog inventory, at 68.427 million head, also dipped 2% from last year, but rose 2% from the June report. From the total September inventory, 5.875 million head were kept for breeding, down 0.085% from June 2026 and 1% from September 2025. According to Lee Schulz, chief economist with EA Risk, this is the smallest breeding herd kept since September 2013.

“The all Hogs and Pigs, the record for Sept. 1 was back in 2019. It was 78.9 million head, and you compare that to our inventory here for Sept. 1, 74.3 million head, that's 4.5 million head smaller than it was back in that period,” Schulz says. “So, it shows you that our industry has seen smaller inventories over that period since 2019. Now, the market hog inventory that's down roughly about 4 million head or so, and so the remaining reduction is about the half a million head that we've seen reduction in the overall breeding herd.

“Now, finally, the pig crop, the June- August here at 34.5 million head, that's about two million heads smaller than it was back in 2019. So, I think it's important to provide that context that we're not really seeing any supply growth here. We're seeing, again, numbers all smaller, than a year ago, when we look at the inventories and really no notable growth kind of even in the short term or the longer term.”