The number of hogs on Canadian farms eased in 2024, after rising slightly the previous year.
The national hog herd as of Jan. 1 2025 was pegged at 13.98 million head in a Statistics Canada livestock inventory report on Tuesday. That is down 0.9% from a year earlier and marks the lowest for the date since 2016 at 13.63 million. On Jan. 1 2024, the number of hogs in Canada was estimated at 13.98 million, up 0.64% on the year.
Total breeding stock (over 6 months of age) was estimated at 1.21 million head as of Jan. 1, 2025, down about 1.6% from a year earlier. At 1.2 million head, the number of sows and gilts was 1.6% lower, while boars declined 2.6% year-over-year to 15,200 head.
The number of all other hogs as of Jan. 1 came in at 12.64 million, a decline of 0.86% from the previous year.
Hog numbers fell most steeply this past year in the No. 1 production province of Quebec, following the implementation of a provincial hog reduction program. Introduced amid a decline in local pork processing capacity, labour shortages, and high feed costs, the program helped to lead to a 3.2% decline in the province’s hog numbers to 4.12 million as of Jan.1.
The number of hogs in Manitoba as of Jan. 1, 2025 was little changed on the year at 3.4 million, while the Ontario herd ticked higher, rising 1.1% to 3.71 million head.
From July to December 2024, the total Canadian hog slaughter decreased 1% to 10.7 million head, StatsCan said, while international exports of live hogs were down 3.6% to 3.3 million head. The pig crop fell 3.6% to 14.6 million head compared with July to December 2023, as production declined following reductions in processing in both Eastern and Western Canada.
