Canadian hog inventories declined slightly at the start of 2026, reflecting strong demand at both home and abroad, according to a Statistics Canada livestock report Friday.
Canadian producers reported 13.9 million hogs on farms as of Jan. 1, down 0.8% from the same date in 2025. The number of sows and gilts edged up 0.4% to 1.2 million, while the number of boars remained steady at 15,300 head. The pig crop for the second half of 2025 rose 3% to 15.2 million.
Back in August, StatsCan reported that Canadian hog producers had 13.8 million hogs on their farms on July 1, down 1.3% from the same date in 2024.
From July through December 2025, live hog exports climbed 8% year-over-year to 3.5 million head, and total hog slaughter increased 1.8% to 10.9 million head as strong global demand bolstered pork markets.
Meanwhile, the latest U.S. quarterly Hogs and Pigs report in December showed the American hog herd was slightly larger as of Dec. 1, 2025, with 75.5 million animals on U.S. farms, up about 1% from a year earlier. Of that total, approximately 69.6 million were market hogs, and 5.95 million were kept for breeding.
