The pig farming industry in the world is heading for a period that is about to see a big change. Farmers from every corner of the earth are making a change in their previous plans to be able to handle the forecasted market swings in the future 2025 in a more effective way. The supply and demand imbalance has been the biggest issue for the breeders that they need to face as they continue making their processes better.
According to the latest USDA figures, world pork production is projected to be 116.7 million tons at the end of 2025, indicating a 0.2% increase compared to 2024. The fact that the increase is so small is an obvious sign that the industry is being rather cautious given the current market uncertainties. In this situation, breeding programs have changed their orders and have started the preference for quality over the quantity. Farm managers in some countries have started looking for alternative genetics that could be viable by increasing the resilience.
For the second time, the pig crop from September to November soared, increasing by 2% and reached a record 35.2 million heads. This was achieved mainly by the highest record of litter rates ever recorded, with 11.92 pigs per litter. The paths to success were not always straightforward. The breeding experts made use of the very latest and most advanced reproductive technologies which in turn brought about a higher conception rate. Some facilities indicated the trials of different types of estrus synchronization, but the results received varied in success.
Reading on a worldwide level, the number of pigs tells a different story. The global total pig enumeration reduced to 759 million in 2024 from 778 million in the previous year, thus resulting in a drastic reduction of 2.4%. This unforeseen drop set off a bee sting debate among stakeholders on whether to take measures and reproduce more pigs. Nevertheless, the decrease of pig numbers has gained a little boost from the progress of feed efficiency.
The breeding programs have started reevaluating their primary focus on feed conversion as a major selection criterion. As feed costs are expected to be lower throughout the year 2025, the producers will be prompted to put their emphasis on weight growth in general although the high inventory won’t be merely the goal. The changes in strategy that this implies are outside the realm of the expected.
Add domestic production and international trade relationships, and it gets even more twisted. It has been estimated that the U.S. pork export will fall by 2% in 2025. Trade uncertainties also point to a cut in U.S. pork exports that reached 7 billion pounds. These shipping problems on the export side together with resolve the issue of breeding requirements being more pegged to domestic consumption rather than the former distinctive international market requirements which had a strong effect on the breeding decisions.
The market analysts highlight that being overly optimistic about the supply hike is not the best approach. The June 2024 immeasurable hogs and pigs stock changes were practically net structural revision of 0.5%. Similarly, the March-May 2024 pig crop changes had an average revision of 0.8%. Every single one of these minute changes indicates that the breeding programs are tread cautiously amid the weak standing.
The breeding program efficiency and the regional variations remain the two very significant elements in the competitive marketing industry. A few regions have the advantage due to their productive artificial insemination programs while others have not been so fortunate partly due to the seasonal temperaments. This discrepancy is why there is a need for incorporating local perspectives in breeding management.