WASHINGTON – Since 2021, officials with the US Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) along with the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) conducted its third national study of US small enterprise swine operations.

The agency asked approximately 5,000 producers in 38 states to participate, which represents about 95% of US swine operations with fewer than 1,000 pigs.

“Small enterprise swine production is a growing sector of the US swine industry due to its role as a primary supplier of many niche-market products,” USDA said in the survey. “Small enterprise swine production in the United States is very diverse, which creates unique information needs for the industry.”

Objectives for the study included describing the current health and production practices of small enterprise operations and identify trends in swine health and disease management practices at small enterprise operations.

USDA also wanted to characterize movement, mortality and slaughter channels in these operations.

Finally, the survey examined differences in marketing practices and movements on small and large US swine operations.

NAHMS conducted six additional studies on health and management of US swine operations dating back to 1990, according to the agency.

More details about all recent swine studies are made available here.