Iowa Hog Inventory Tops 20 Million

Des Moines Register:

The USDA said the national hog inventory was 68.5 million on June 1, up 1 percent both from March and from June of last year.
Iowa’s 20.1 million inventory easily surpassed number two North Carolina’s 8.7 million. Minnesota is in third place with 7.8 million. Illinois, 4.7 million and Indiana, 3.8 million, rounded out the top five hog producing states.
Iowa has seen a surge in applications for new hog confinement barns, although not at the same pace as in 2005-06. About 80 percent of Iowa’s hogs now are raised in confinements.
Hogs bring about $5 billion in cash revenues to Iowa producers and support a network of processing plants around the state.
Commodity traders have warned that the hog  industry is in danger of slipping into one of its periodic burst of price-depressing overproduction. Market analyst Alan Brugler of Omaha described the report Friday as “neutral to slightly bearish.”
Dennis Smith of Archer Financial Services in Chicago said “”there’s nothing here to change the production outlook which is for larger production down the road.”

Not bad for a state with 3 million people.  Over 6 pigs per person, impressive.