The quarterly hogs and pigs report, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently, showed continued declines in both the national and Iowa’s hog herd.

The U.S. inventory of all hogs and pigs on Dec. 1, 2022, was 73.1 million head. This was down 2% from Dec. 1, 2021, and down 1% from Sept. 1, 2022. In Iowa, the inventory was 23.6 million on Dec. 1. This was up 1% from the previous quarter but down 1% from the previous year.

Nationally, the September-November 2022 pig crop, at...