On Thursday, USDA will release its quarterly Hogs and Pigs report for the June through August quarter showing the inventory as of 1 September. Pre-report expectations peg the total inventory at 100.5 percent of last year. That would imply 75.7 million head, the largest inventory for the quarter since 2020. 

The table below shows all the pre-report expectations by category.  

Pigs saved per litter is 101 percent of last year, which was a quarterly record at 11.61, so if that estimate is correct there will be a new record. 

The analysts' consensus guesss is that the pig crop will be 99 percent of last year; the range among the forecasts was a low of 98.7 to 99.6 percent, or in other words no forecast of growth, wh...