PURPOSE
The Hog Inventory surveys provide detailed inventory of breeding
and marketing hogs and the future supply of market hogs on
a quarterly basis. The United States Code, Title 7, Section
2204 authorizes the quarterly Hog Inventory survey.
COVERAGE
Hog owners, including contractors, are the target population.
The sampling universe for the hog estimation program is all
hog operations with capacity to raise breeding or market hogs.
A sample of hog operations from the list frame maintained
by NASS is supplemented by a sample of area tracts to ensure
complete coverage. All states are included in the December
Hog survey while producers in the largest 30 hog producing
states are surveyed during the following three quarters. Hog
operations who own hogs in more than one state report inventories
by state so the hogs and pigs are allocated to the proper
state.
CONTENT
For the quarterly hog surveys, nearly 10,000 hog owners are
contacted for inventory as of the first of the month for (1)
sows and gilts for breeding, (2) sows and gilts expected to
farrow for the next six months, (3) boars and young males
used for breeding, (4) weight groups of market hogs and pigs
(under 60 pounds, 60 to 119 pounds, 120 to 179 pounds, and
180 pounds and over), (5) sows and gilts that farrowed during
the previous three months whether the hog operation still
owned, sold, or slaughtered the pigs, and (6) information
on contractor/contractees.
FREQUENCY
The quarterly hog surveys are conducted in December (base
quarter), March, June, and September.
METHODS
The quarterly hog sample is drawn from the list of known
hog owners on the NASS list frame. Owners are stratified by
size of total inventory.
Information for the quarterly hog surveys is collected by
mail, telephone interview, face-to-face interviews, and web-based
electronic data reporting.
PRODUCTS
NASS publishes a quarterly Hogs and Pigs report with inventory
and breeding information for each of the 17 largest hog producing
states, accounting for nearly 95 percent of the total U.S.
inventory. In addition, a combined total for all other states
is estimated in order to publish U.S. level data. In December,
NASS publishes hog information, by state, for all states.
About one month after each hog report, the United States
and Canadian Hog Report is released. This report combines
NASS hog and pig estimates with quarterly hog statistics released
by Statistics Canada.
Estimates of the number of operations with hogs by herd size
groups and percent of inventory on these operations are published
in the Farms, Land in Farms, and Livestock Operations in January.
USES
The primary data user is the producer to determine production
and marketing strategies. Other uses are by the agricultural
industry to assess markets and potential demand for products,
by Federal government to analyze potential and actual production,
and by foreign buyers of agricultural products. Federal agricultural
agencies that use information from these surveys are the Economics
Research Service, Foreign Agricultural Service, Agricultural
Marketing Service, and Farm Service Agency. The Department
of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, is a major non-USDA
agency that uses the data to prepare national and regional
estimates of farm income and production.
SPECIAL FEATURES
A special publication, U.S. Hog Breeding Herd Structure is
periodically released. This publication includes an analysis
of the hog breeding statistics.
RELATED PROGRAMS
Meat Animals: Production, Disposition, and Income
Livestock Slaughter
Farms, Land in Farms, and Livestock Operations
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