CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF PORK POWERHOUSES

After two exceptionally difficult years, most of the nation's largest swine producers saw 2024 as a year of recovery.

- By Courtney Leeper Girgis

Christensen Farms in Minnesota is No. 10 on the Pork Powerhouses list.

Sow numbers remained relatively stable from 2023–2024 for the top 36 swine producers on the Pork Powerhouses® report, now in its 30th year.

Twelve companies from the 2023 list reported increased sow numbers, 13 remained the same, and nine reduced sows, including Smithfield, for which 2023 and 2024 sow numbers came from a public registration statement submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January. Nine of the companies reporting increases or decreases made shifts of 2,000 sows or fewer. Two additional companies, Passel Farms and Murphy Family Ventures, have been added to the list, although their sows are not necessarily new.

With 4,177,901 sows, the 36 Pork Powerhouses own and/or manage nearly 70% of the U.S. breeding inventory, based on the Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report from the USDA, released Dec. 23, 2024.

MURPHY FAMILY RETURNS

Perhaps the biggest news of 2024 was the return of the Murphy family to the Pork Powerhouses list. On Dec. 2, 2024, Smithfield and Murphy Family Ventures announced they had signed an agreement to establish a Murphy-owned business with capacity to produce about 3.2 million hogs annually for Smithfield.

The agreement involves the Murphy-owned company assuming ownership of 150,000 previously Smithfield owned sows and the market hogs they produce. Smithfield provides production services, including the supply of feed and transportation.