USDA released its June quarterly Hogs and Pigs report today. Pre-report expectation was for a total inventory of 73.6 million head – which would have been the smallest September inventory since 2017 - but the actual inventory was 74.3 million, slightly higher than September 2022 and up 2 percent from June.   

The bottom line is that the total inventory of hogs and pigs grew over last year, which may be somewhat of a surprise, but the growth in the herd from June to September - which is a  typical seasonal pattern - grew at a smaller pace than the average of 3 percent since 2015. 

Notably, in the June report, June to August intended farrowings were 2.942 million head – the actual was 2.949, very consiste...