For the first time in years, recently released MetaFarms data shows a decreasing trend in sow mortality. From a high of 14% in 2022, the 2024 data shows a decrease to 12.2%.
Still, disease or health continues to comprise 31% of all sow mortality causes, and lameness is a contributor at 17%. Challenges like disease, lameness or welfare are reasons why the industry is developing a National Swine Health Strategy. In collaboration with an advisory group, National Pork Board and National Pork Producers Council are using producer feedback to inform the strategy’s development.
“Focusing on selection of gilts for structural soundness can help in reducing lameness issues in sows,” says Chris Hostetler, NPB director of animal science.
Pre-wean mortality was at a five-year high in 2024, at 16.4%, up from 13.7% in 2023 and 12.9% in 2020. Hostetler emphasizes pre-wean mortality is an area the industry can’t afford to lose focus on right now.
“Even the very best producers – the top 10% – saw an increase pre-wean mortality in 2024, so I think it’s important to not lose sight of that,” says Rachel Johnson, technical account and product support lead at MetaFarms, Inc. “But the good news was the pigs that made it to weaning performed very well last year, and the industry continues to get better. Mortality was down in nursery-to-finish and wean-to-finish categories in 2024 as compared to the previous years. That, combined with the pigs growing really well last year, means we are hopefully offsetting some of those early losses with good performance afterward.”
MetaFarms released the “Production Analysis Summary for U.S. Pork Industry: 2020-2024” in partnership with NPB to help producers learn from each other through this benchmarking effort representing a dataset of 1.28 million females from 462 sow farms, more than 18.0 million nursery pigs, more than 18.2 million finish pigs and 10.3 million single-stocked wean-to-finish pigs from farms across the U.S.
Analytical analysis on percentile performance shows the differences among the best performing farms (top 10%), middle-of-the-road farms (50%) and the poor performing farms (bottom 10%). Each Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is ranked independently among the different percentiles, meaning a farm can be in the top 10% in one KPI but in the bottom 10% in another.
Mortality Takeaways
Hostetler says one of the biggest things that stood out to him while reviewing the report was how the bottom 10% of producers affect the average and overall industry mortality.
“If we could figure out how to address the issues the bottom 10% of our production is being affected by, it would be a situation where a rising tide lifts all ships,” Hostetler says. “We could make some progress in terms of overall mortality for all phases of our production.”
He’s also quick to point out how the top 10% and average has been a sideways affair in this data set. Mortality in all phases of production for the top 10% moved sideways.
“The data has not had that upward and to-the-right curve that we’ve experienced as an industry as a whole,” he says. “That tells me our top 10% is doing a really good job in terms of mortality and in all phases of production.”
He also notes if a farm has a mortality that exceeds 6%, you’ll likely see the farm also has a very poor average daily gain, a very high number of days on feed and a very poor feed efficiency.
“Mortality affects more than throughput of animals. It underpins other key productivity indicators that, in turn, affect profitability,” he says. “It has a substantial impact on sustainability, for example. If we have a poor feed efficiency, that requires more feed to be provided to the animals, which increases our carbon intensity and environmental footprint that’s associated with growing that feed.”
Steady Sow Improvements
Today’s sow is incredibly productive, Johnson explains. Data shows continued steady improvements in total born and live born.
In 2024, the industry hit some five-year highs for average born alive at 14.28 pigs, up from 13.49 in 2020, Johnson says. Pigs weaned per sow farrowed was 11.92 pigs, up from 11.34 in 2020.
“With the percent of stillborn pigs, it looks like we’re making progress, and that probably comes back to being able to assist sows during farrowing,” Hostetler says. “A larger percentage of farms are beginning to hire dedicated farrowing room staff who are involved with obstetrics or assisting sows during the birthing process. That is a win for sure.”
Pigs weaned per mated female per year (PWMFY) was at 27.27 in 2024, as compared to 25.42 in 2020.
Improving Pig Livability
Over the last three years, NPB has asked MetaFarms to look at this data through a mortality lens, because they have been working in the area of improving pig livability, Hostetler says. In 2019, NPB funded a consortium to work in this space. One of the outcomes is a pig livability conference that will take place in Omaha on November 5 and 6. https://piglivability.org/2025-conference
“Having MetaFarms look at the production statistics through a mortality lens has been an important and key piece of that effort,” Hostetler says.
The opportunity to participate in peer groups has also been very eye-opening, Johnson adds.
“If we’re truly honest and willing to take a look at things – warts and all – everybody at the table has something to learn from each other,” she says.
Hostetler appreciates how lenders, college instructors, high school ag teachers, nutritionists, geneticists and more are digging into these reports every year.
“I think it’s one of the best things that we do bang-for-the buck for our industry,” he says. “The return on this relatively small investment has the opportunity to inform decisions that are made on the pig farm every single day. For me, that’s a big win for our pork producers to have this as a resource to inform decisions.”
