The 2017 Census of Agriculture shows the number of hogs produced in the United States is climbing, and the number of hog operations is on the rise for the first time since 1935. The total number of hog farms grew by 5% at 66,439 farms up from 63,246 farms in 2012.
It’s no surprise that the state of Iowa leads the pack with 22,730,540 total number of hogs. Iowa is followed by North Carolina at 8,899,459 and Minnesota at 8,467,361 respectively.
North Carolina boasts the top two pork-producing counties. Duplin County ranks No. 1 in the U.S. with 1,957,364 total number of hogs, followed by Sampson County at 1,884,585 head.
Twelve counties in Iowa made the Top 20 list with Washington County ranking third at 1,332,048 head, closely followed by Sioux County at fourth with 1,259,133 head.
Texas County in Oklahoma ranks fifth with 1,094,877 total hogs. Here’s a list of the top 20 pig counties according to the most recent Census report of counties reporting data*.
- 461,600 head
- 483,527 head
- 504,353 head
- 548,561 head
- 551,431 head
- 594,888 head
- 596,118 head
- 599,573 head
- 628,945 head
- 713,011 head
Read on to find out the Top 10.
*Here’s what NASS says about such omissions: “If publishing a particular data item would identify an operation (for example, if there is only one producer of a particular commodity in a county), NASS does not publish the information. In such cases, the data are suppressed and shown as ‘(D),’ meaning ‘withheld to avoid disclosing data for individual operations.’”
