Production and Marketing Characteristics of U.S. PorkProducers, 2006

A 2007 survey of US pork producers indicated that nearly two-thirds of US hogs are produced by less than 200 firms marketing 50,000 or more hogs per year. We estimate that 27 operations marketing at least 500,000 hogs a year sold 43% of US hogs in 2006. The next 164 operations marketing between 50 and 500 thousand hogs a year sold 21% of US hogs. Another 21% were marketed by 1,450 firms with annual sales of 10-50 thousand head. The remaining 15% of hogs were sold by firms marketing less than 10,000 hogs a year and this size category is losing market share as larger operations expand. Producers in all size categories are planning growth over the next three years. Production and marketing characteristics, cost of production, and plans for the future are reported by size category.[...]