February 18, 2009

Canada's hog inventories as of January 1 totalled 12.400 million head, down from 13.810 million at the same time a year ago and lower than the 12.825 million in the previous quarter ended October 1, 2008, figures released by Statistics Canada revealed.

 

The government agency said the three-year downtrend in Canada's hog inventory continued. The breeding herd alone, mainly sows and gilts, declined 7.1 percent to 1.4 million head.

 

Over the last decade, hog production in Canada has evolved toward complete market integration in North America, the agency said. American hog finishing operations took advantage of an ample local corn supply and fed it to weaners from the breeding and farrowing operations in Canada. In addition, a shortage from a loss of slaughter capacity on one side of the border has been offset by sufficient capacity on the other side.

 

Major hog herd contraction since the fall of 2007 caused hog marketings to level off in 2008 to total 31 million hogs. Hog slaughter in Canada increased 2.0 percent, while exports decreased 7.1 percent

 

Over the past two years, 47.6 percent of the hogs produced in western provinces were marketed in the US, Statistics Canada said. In 2007, Saskatchewan was left with very limited slaughter capacity as plants closed throughout the province. However, in the fall of 2008, one of the largest plants in Manitoba established a second shift for additional demand.